Tag: Financial Crimes

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Big Data Redefines KYC? – Medium

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Thanks to technology, KYC is evolving to Know Your Country

To the average American, the acronym KYC probably sounds like a misspelling of the infamous KFC, but those of us in the financial services industry immediately recognize the acronym as referring to Know Your Customer, one of the cornerstones of today’s efforts to reduce risk and fraud in banking. The definition of KYC is about to change, however, as the acronym evolves to the risk management tool, “Know Your Country.”

It used to be understood that a successful banker would need to know his or her customers. One hundred years ago, chances are good that the home town banker would be intimately acquainted with his or her neighbors investing money, or seeking loans. Fast forward to today, and life is just not that simple anymore, particularly with national and global banks having hundreds of branch offices in multiple countries.

After 9/11, the U.S. Patriot Act in 2001 formalized the requirement for financial institutions to “know” their customers. . . Click here to read the rest of the article.

A place for your gold or a mini $ laundromat? – Medium

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5 ways to identify suspicious activity with safe deposit boxes

Swiss banks are synonymous with anonymity. But the threats of money laundering and terrorist financing are enough to force some banking changes — particularly when it comes to safe deposit boxes.

Recently, India and Switzerland have been working closely together to identify Indians who have potentially been stashing illicit money in Swiss safe deposit boxes. Switzerland has already disclosed account information at the request of the Indian government, an action that would not have taken place 20 years ago. But the Swiss government also issued assurances that its safe deposit box regulations are sufficient to deal with increased money laundering risks at this time.

Just how popular are safe deposit boxes today? Click here to read the rest of this story. . .

Silk Road, Bitcoin and the Secret Servicemen – Medium

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Two Secret Service agents, both of whom were members of the Baltimore Silk Road Task Force charged with breaking Silk Road’s ring of illegal online activity (primarily drug sales), have pled guilty to money laundering and other charges. Shaun Bridges was sentenced on December 7 to 71 months behind bars, and ordered to forfeit $651,000 of the $820,000 he reportedly stole and laundered. Bridges’ colleague, Carl Force, was convicted of a similar crime last October, sentenced to six and a half years in prison and ordered to pay $340,000 in compensation.

Two members of a task force ordered to bring down an online black market, become criminals themselves; how does this happen? To read the rest of this story, please click here.

Bank Fraud: More Common Than You Think – Medium

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When you think of financial fraud, you might envision money laundering activities conducted by members of organized crime syndicates. Or you might think of how a stolen identity helped thieves take your money or leverage your credit cards. In truth, the laws intended to help financial institutions thwart financial fraud are broad enough to cover these acts and much more involving everyday criminals — some who are not so smart, and some who are so sophisticated that it takes time to bring them down.

Last month, a used car dealer in Florida pled guilty to bank fraud for a check kiting scheme that defrauded an unnamed financial institution of over $1 million. The crime happened in 2011, and I’m willing to bet that the bank’s Know Your Customer (KYC) policies and its internal processes for approving check drafts against uncollected funds have since been tightened.

Also this past month, a woman who embezzled money in 2014 from her employer was convicted. . . to read the rest of the article, please click here.

From the Laundromat to Wall Street: a History of Money Laundering – Medium

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I talk a lot about money laundering, but exactly what is it and how did it become a popular topic of conversation?

According to the U.S. Treasury, money laundering is simply how someone or some organization makes illegally-gained proceeds, or dirty money, clean. Typically, it involves three steps — placement, layering and integration — so that illegitimate funds can become part of the legitimate financial system.

As an illegal activity, it’s been going on for several thousand years; for example, we know that Chinese merchants were hiding their wealth from rulers as early as 2,000 BC. They would either move it, invest it in remote provinces (or outside of China) or bury it.

Fast forward to today, and. . .to read the rest of this article, please click here.

Financial Risk Management is a Global Issue – Medium

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The story unfolding in Poland, with politicians running electoral campaigns based on promises to curb bank profits, could have a profound effect on other countries, depending on the outcome.

We casually talk about the global economy, and how one venture outside of our borders can have a dramatic effect on our financial health. The story began during the financial crisis of 2008, when Polish banks were largely insulated from the global recession due to their strong fiscal management policies and the financial management tools offered to customers. At that time, many Poles took advantage of the Polish currency’s strength (zloty) against the Swiss franc and financed mortgages in the Swiss currency Today, that balance is reversed; the Swiss central bank abandoned caps on the franc’s value earlier this year. As a result, the franc became stronger, with the move affecting more than half a million Poles who now find themselves paying much more for their mortgages. To read the rest of this article on Medium.com, please click here.

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