On the face of it, a conviction for trafficking minors for sex may not seem like a financial crime. However, the proceeds generated by these and other sex-related crimes are subject to attack under money laundering laws, even if the activity takes place in one jurisdiction and the money is laundered in another.
A man who, as he saw it, was demoted exercised unauthorised access to computers at his workplace and deleted important files. Later, after he resigned, he again accessed the company's computers and deleted more files including back-ups held by an independent third party. As a final act, he deleted even more files with a single "wipe" command aimed at a PC at the company's head office.
German company Seimens paid many bribes to officials all over the world to secure contracts with governments in a wide range of technology fields including telecommunications (in all its forms), rail and other transport and more. Brought before the US authorities in 2008, it paid what was then the largest ever penalty for payments made in breach of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
The owner of an interior design company denied the right of the US government to charge income tax on his earnings. So he set about an elaborate scheme to evade taxes. He's been convicted and is due to be sentenced in November 2018. His schemes were both daring and extensive but the tax evaded over that period was a relatively small amount.
In August 2018, two men were convicted of fraudulent dealings in the assets of a company with the intent to transfer them to a new company so as to continue in business after the old company went into liquidation.
A group of 14 hospitals in California and its founder have avoided conviction for a fraud that took place over an eight year period. A whistleblower made a report and will receive more than USD17 million as a reward.
A group of fraudsters set up a fake law firm to defraud insurance companies in so-called "cash-for-crash" claims. One of the insurance companies they victimised has obtained an order for exemplary damages in a civil court in a fascinating cross-over between civil and criminal jurisdictions.
A company operating outside the UK obtained contracts in another country by means of corrupt payments made to diplomats of that country. That company was later bought by a UK company which meant that the transactions came within the jurisdiction of the UK authorities and courts. A UK court ordered that the diplomats must pay back the benefits they received calculated at GBP4.4 million. Once recovered, the money will form part of the UK's directed aid budget for the country.
Australian banks are getting a justifiable kicking in the media. and to a degree by regulators, after year after year of bad management, bad conduct and failure to put in place effective risk management and compliance policies and procedures especially in relation to money laundering, etc. But it would be wrong to read the headline that a consultant to Macquarie Bank has been convicted of money laundering means the bank made errors in law, although arguably there may have been an error in judgement.
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