Financial Crime Risk Officers - OpEd

As governments around the world ponder the possibility of making banks liable for losses suffered by customers who are the victims of e.g. phishing scams, there are companies that actively assist the fraudsters to get away with it. Let's start at the top: Google.

The USA is, at the best of times, very good at shouting that it's a leader in combating money laundering but it's all mouth and no trousers, most of the time.

Take, for example, the noise it has made about so-called "beneficial owners" of companies, a misuse of the term that goes back to, at least, 1980s Senate Hearings into the laundering of the proceeds of drugs trafficking and the use of shell and offshore companies. 40 years on, the USA has still done nothing about it and all the signs are that nothing is going to happen soon. ADDENDUM: Comment by Jim Richards.

Here's the irony: FinCEN doesn't need to build and maintain a database at all, especially as the law restricts access to the data it holds, so voiding any KYC benefit it may have across the world.

"Brits Are Listening To Ant McPartlin And They’re Raking In Millions From Home" screams the headline - then the e-mail launches into a pitch that is a near replica of what we've seen before. It's using Ant McPartlin as a hook but also Phillip Schofield who is currently riding a wave of publicity.

A deferred prosecution is a device used by prosecutors to allow suspected criminals to buy what amounts to a judicially approved arrangement to avoid prosecution so long as the accused meets certain conditions for a certain period of time. Critics (of which this newspaper is one) see it as a bribe; supporters see it as a way of compelling the accused to do whatever it is that the prosecuting authority wants. Developed in the USA, there is a global move towards adoption of this tactic. The former head of the UK's Serious Fraud Office was a fan; he's been replaced by an American who has been immersed in this system. How's it going?

We, the people, are discriminatory. You , me, he, she are all guilty of one of the most fundamental forms of discrimination. Yet, if we reject that attitude, we become better at so many things. Importantly, it all comes down to two fundamental prejudices. And, if you are a LinkedIn user, it's almost certain that you exercise it with every visit. Read on for why your New Year's resolution should be to reject this particularly unwise way of life.

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The OECD Working Group on Bribery says that Ireland has failed to act on the Working Group's "recommendation" to make certain that the counter-money laundering law (Criminal Justice (Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing) Act 2010) applies to Irish companies that launder the proceeds of bribing foreign officials, even if there is no law relating to bribery in the official's country. The OECD might have misread Ireland's laws.