The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has issued a report on the funding of terrorist organisation Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

The report suggests countermeasures that governments can take to combat key terrorist financing risks, and identifies certain risks on which the FATF will conduct further research in order to determine the most effective measures to disrupt the funding of ISIL.

In the related press release, the FATF stated that it will review whether all its members have implemented measures to cut off funding to ISIL and that it will put pressure on any country that has failed to implement such measures.

Copies of the:

report, 

webpage;

press release.

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has provided two updates relating to its task of identifying jurisdictions that threaten the international financial system due to strategic Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Counter-Terrorist Financing (CTF) deficiencies.

The FATF published the following documents:

A public statement on jurisdictions with strategic AML/CTF deficiencies, which calls on FATF members to consider the risks arising from the deficiencies associated with:

• Algeria,
• Ecuador and
• Myanmar; and

An update on the FATF’s work towards improving global AML/CFT compliance, which identifies jurisdictions that have strategic AML/CFT deficiencies for which they have developed an action plan with the FATF.

Copies of the public statement 

and the

update document

Four companies in Bolivia, Bangladesh, and Cambodia will be sanctioned for misconduct in World Bank-related projects, The World Bank said in a statement.

“The World Bank announced the debarment of four companies involved in misconduct relating to projects in Bolivia, Bangladesh and Cambodia,” the statement, issued on Wednesday, said.

Two Bolivian companies, Empresa Constructora y Consultora LAPTUS S.R.L. and Ingenieria en Construcciones Orleans, were each debarred for two years for submitting fraudulent performance securities during a bidding process, the statement said.

The Project Implementation Unit tried to enforce the bid securities to cover its losses, but discovered the securities were fake, the statement added.

The original article can be found: http://bit.ly/1AcZ4GR

A man has been charged with fraud and money laundering after offences targeting 34 victims.

Newhaven resident George Wickens, 23, was charged after offences in Stevenage, as well as in St Albans, Surrey, Sussex, Devon and London.

Wickens, of Iveagh Crescent, was charged with

1. conspiracy to commit fraud by making a false representation and
2. conspiracy to conceal, disguise, convert, transfer or remove criminal property.

He was remanded in custody to appear at Brighton Magistrates’ Court yesterday. He is set to appear in Lewes Crown Court on Thursday, April 30.

The crimes took place between October 2013 and April 2014 when victims were told their neighbours’ properties had been flooded with raw sewage coming from under the victims’ homes.

They were told the flooding required specialist equipment to be hired and they would need to pay a returnable deposit.

Read more: http://bit.ly/1wD46Sm

“You don’t lead by hitting people over the head—that’s assault, not leadership.”

Dwight Eisenhower

The FCA has fined Aviva Investors Global Services Limited (Aviva) £17.6 million, including a 30 per cent discount, for weaknesses in their systems and controls that meant that Aviva were unable to manage conflicts of interest properly and fairly. These failings resulted in breaches of Principles 3 and 8 of the FCA’s Principles for Businesses.

Between August 2005 and June 2013, Aviva operated a ‘side-by-side’ management strategy on particular desks within its fixed income division, so that funds that paid differing levels of performance fees were managed by the same desk.

There were procedures in place but traders could delay the recording of trades and allocate trades to particular funds to favour the business or their own personal interests – an abuse practice known as ‘cherry picking’.

The FCA found that Aviva’s systems and controls contained serious weaknesses.

As a result, two former fixed income traders delayed recording the allocation of executed trades for several hours without being detected.

To ensure that the funds were not affected by this behaviour, Aviva paid compensation of £132 million to eight impacted funds.

The FCA noted that Aviva’s level of cooperation during the investigation was exemplary.

Copies of the

final notice

and

press release

Ryan Willmott, former group reporting and financial planning manager at Logica plc (Logica), has pleaded guilty to three counts of insider dealing pursuant to section 52 of the Criminal Justice Act 1993. When he became privy to inside information about a takeover bid for Logica in 2012,

Mr Willmott dealt in Logica’s shares under another person’s name and disclosed the information to a friend who traded for both of them.

The trading in Logica’s shares made a profit of over £30,000. Mr Willmott will be sentenced at a hearing on 26 March 2015.

A copy of the FCA’s press release is available.

Herbert Smiths Corporate Crime and Investigations team have published an e-bulletin summarising recent developments in the EU’s sanctions imposed against Russia.

It includes points of interest arising from the recent judgment in Rosneft’s judicial review application, which concerned certain aspects of the UK’s implementation of the sanctions.

The High Court has referred a number of questions to the EU Court of Justice (CJEU), including questions relating to:

• the validity of certain elements of the sanctions (relating to the oil sector and the capital markets restrictions); and
• whether the capital markets restrictions prevent the issuance of GDRs in relation to existing transferable securities. The High Court expressed the provisional view that the FCA is correct in its view that the issue of new GDRs in relation to existing shares is prohibited.

The e-bulletin is available here.