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madraslawyers · 1 year

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ஊழல் வழக்குகள்: சிறந்த குற்றவியல் வழக்கறிஞரைக் கண்டறியவும்

Large bribery & corruption case investigation involves risk to protect client from exposure. The exposure can be media & publicity. Our law firm will take care of such matters. Attorneys at Rajendra Law Office ensure confidentiality of your case detail

ஊழல் வழக்குகளுக்கு வழக்கறிஞர்கள்: ஊழலுக்கு எதிராக எங்கள் அரசு கடுமையாக உள்ளது. நிச்சயமாக, இந்தியாவில் அரசு ஊழியர்களுக்கு ஊழல் & லஞ்சம் கொடுப்பது ஐபிசியின் கீழ் தண்டனைக்குரியது மற்றும் அபராதம் விதிக்கக்கூடியது. ஊழல் தடுப்புச் சட்டம் ஊழல், லஞ்சம் மற்றும் அதன் தண்டனை போன்ற குற்றங்களைக் கையாள்கிறது. தமிழகத்தில் ஊழல் தடுப்பு வழக்குகளை வாதாட சிறந்த வழக்கறிஞரைக் கண்டறியவும் சென்னையில் ஊழல்…

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#514. Corrupt inducement affecting appointment as liquidator #AB Advocates #advocates For Anti Corruption #Advocates for benami Cases #Advocates for Benami disputes #Advocates for Benami Transaction issues #Advocates for Bribery cases #Advocates for Bribery issues #Advocates for CBI Litigation Cases #Advocates for Corruption cases #Advocates for Money laundering #Advocates for police corruption cases #Advocates in Anna Nagar #anti money laundering and lawyers #anti money laundering attorney jobs #Anti Money laundering compliance #anti money laundering lawyers #Anti-corruption authorities #Anti-Corruption Laws (Amendment) Act #Anticipatory Bail Lawyers #Attorneys for benami Cases #banks and public service commission employees #Benami Advocates #Benami Appeals #Benami Case advocates #Benami disputes #benami Litigation #Benami Litigation Lawyers #Benami Transact #Benami Transactions

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ilucyliu-blog · 1 year

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Fraudulent Cryptocurrency Abounds

With indictments and massive fines being announced almost daily, it is becoming increasingly difficult to differentiate between legitimate crypto activity and companies like Binance, and fringe fraud. A year ago, a typical cryptocurrency headline that would grab your attention would be about some obscure coin that suddenly skyrocketed in value. Nowadays, a typical headline about cryptocurrency…

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thestrategicpartner · 1 year

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#COLP Training #COFA Training #Anti Money Laundering Regulations – The Basics #Anti Money Laundering Regulations – The Detail #MLCO and MLRO Training #The SRA and Law Firms

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brownllc · 1 year

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The Largest Whistleblower Awards - Brown, LLC

The more the government spends, the more the taxpayers are victimized by fraud, in the form of Medicare Fraud, Medicaid Fraud, and Defense Contractor Fraud.

Read more: https://ifightforyourrights.com/blog/record-government-spending-record-fraud-and-some-of-the-largest-whistleblower-awards/

#cftc whistleblower attorney #cftc whistleblower lawyer #ppp fraud whistleblower #ppp loan whistleblower #whistleblower ppp loan.#irs whistleblower law firm #tax whistleblower law firm #whistleblower law firm #top anti-money laundering lawyer #medicare fraud whistleblower attorney #medicare whistleblower lawyer #medicare whistleblower attorney

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spectrumaccounts · 2 years

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Comprehensive guide for DNFBPs to UAE's Anti Money Laundering law

Threatening the stability and security of the country's economy, money laundering is considered a national threat and is legally a punishable offense around the world. For decades jurisdictions have put forth various laws to rein illicit transfer of funds.

In Particular, the past decade has seen various implementations, with FATF (Financial Action Task Force) counting UAE in the gray list. Anti Money Laundering Law in UAE has seemingly tightened its regulations.

Powered with gold, fuel and abundant natural resources, UAE is the financial hub of the Middle East. It attracts a large number of investments from western countries, making it easy to sneak past the federal bodies.

UAE's move against money laundering

UAE maintains a strict anti-money laundering law in an effort to combat tax evasion, criminal financing, market manipulation and other illegal means of money laundering and criminal activities.

UAE anti-money laundering law requires FI (Financial institutions) and DNFBPs (designated non-financial businesses or professions) to establish a comprehensive program that includes KYC, Risk filing, STR filing and more.

Registered financial institutions are required to conduct diligence and report in case of any suspicious activity.

UAE imposes a strict penalty ranging up to five million dollars or imprisonment of the person responsible.

Furthermore, the person involved will face a penalty or ban from the sector until further notice.

DNFBP's role

DNFBP or designated non-financial business or profession are those not involved in any finance or banking activities but conduct some form of financial transactions, i.e.,

Real estate

Dealing with precious stones and metals,

Law firms/lawyers

Accounting service providers.

DNFBP have played a significant role in market manipulation, illegal acquisitions and criminal financing. Despite falling out of the FI category, DNFBP holds certain financial transactions in the name of their clients and obscure them through other operational means.

The recent circular by the UAE's ministry of the economy reflects the new, more vigilant form of rule adoption. It has made it mandatory for the DNFB to register under the goAML and implement necessary measures to ensure the organisation's internal operations are lucid.

It also requires organisations to implement measures to ensure they are well aware of their clients and their business activity.

Steps to be taken by DNFBP

The regulatory bodies in the UAE are imposing these duties to increase their surveillance power over the financial transactions connected and conducted by the DNFBPs.

After registering in the goAML, DNFBPs have to ensure they are taking necessary measures to fully comply with the provisions of UAE Anti Money Laundering Law, combating the financing of terrorism, and prohibiting the support of criminal organisations, as well as its rules implementation and pertinent decisions.

The company must strictly establish AML policies and procedures in its operations. From training, staff to be completely aware of what AML to monitoring the in-and-out transactions. AML must be crucial to the organisation's operations and be kept under frequent inspection.

Although these requirements initially may appear cumbersome, the cost of non-compliance could be substantially greater.

The UAE Anti Money Laundering Law has established assistance for DNFBPs seeking to improve the efficacy and efficiency of their compliance processes.

Improving compliance and increasing employee awareness are essential components of an effective internal AML system. DNFBPs can expect the Anti Money Laundering in UAE to be much more proactive in supervising these functions in the future.

DNFBPs previously outside the scope of regulated entities will need to learn at least the fundamentals of effective compliance with UAE Anti Money Laundering Law or face punitive measures from UAE authorities.

Meta Description

Following a number of international reports and official findings UAE seemingly tightens its anti money laundering law in the light of DNFBPs snubbing the federal authorities.

#Anti Money Laundering in UAE #Anti Money Laundering Law #Uae Anti Money Laundering Law #Aml Law in UAE #Aml Law in Dubai #Aml Policy UAE #Anti Money Laundering Policy UAE

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flintandpyrite · 7 days

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That post going around about how art museums suck and curators are allergic to work is very much "man who has never been to any other art museum: This museum is so much like the met"-coded and weirdly anti-intellectua/STEMcel feeling. There are so many curators out there doing the work to connect people to art!!! I haven't been to an exhibit like the one they describe (unconnected unexplained painting collections with tiny wall text) in years (except for the Met, see above, they really are like that-- and often only parts of them; I find that the Cloisters really goes the extra mile to contextualize their collection, maybe only because it's such a wacky collection that if you put it all in one room with no context no one, not even medievalists, would enjoy it even a little bit. But I digress).

Every major exhibit I have been to in the past decade (and I go to A Lot of art museums) and many many minor ones have made a tremendous effort to interpret and explain the context of the art, even if major pieces are not in the collection. Yes it is bullshit that rich people get massive tax breaks (no, not just clout, it's a money laundering scheme) for "donating" their art. But let's not confuse the shitty tax law in this country for a conspiracy by art curator "elites" trying to fuck over the layperson. Thank u.

#I read the post bc I was like I LOVE MUSEUMS TOO and became progressively more annoyed as I went #ugh #and before you come for me I was a math major and I have two masters degrees in various STEM fields #I'm very much not an overly sensitive art history major taking this personally

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gothhabiba · 11 months

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Law enforcement officers in Georgia have arrested three top organizers behind a bail fund in Atlanta that has been aiding protesters against Cop City.

Atlanta police arrested the organizers, the CEO, chief financial officer and the secretary for the group behind the Atlanta Solidarity Fund, at their homes on Wednesday morning. According to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI), the three were charged with money laundering and charity fraud.

Activists called the arrests an escalation in the state’s attempt to crush the Stop Cop City movement, with participants being hit with increasingly harsh charges.

“This is a major escalation –– they’re arresting those who defend the arrested,” wrote Atlanta organizer Micah Herskind. “The implications of these arrests is that not only can you not protest, but you cannot defend those who are arrested for protesting. There is no first amendment in Atlanta.”

In a statement, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) spoke as though the organizers and other anti-Cop City activists were already found guilty of their charges from the GBI. He said that he was “proud” to have arrested the “criminals” who he says “facilitated and encouraged domestic terrorism,” referring to terrorism charges against Cop City protesters.

The city of Atlanta is pursuing a $90 million plan backed by both Republicans like Kemp and Democratic Mayor Andre Dickens to build an 85-acre police militarization compound in a forest in the area. If built, Cop City would be the nation’s largest police training compound, and activists say that it would only worsen brutality by local police, as evidenced by the violent response to nonviolent protesters — all while razing a forest to do so.

The Twitter account for the Defend the Atlanta Forest/Stop Cop City movement[] pointed out that the Atlanta Solidarity Fund has aided in lawsuits against the Atlanta Police Department over its arrests of a journalist and protesters in the movement. “This is retaliatory,” the group wrote.

Activists have also pointed out that the GBI’s statement about the arrest, as well as Kemp’s, seem to suggest that the state is preparing to use Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) charges against the bail fund, which the Atlanta Solidarity Fund has been predicting for months.

The organizers have said that the state appears to be creating a “flimsy narrative” that the group is a criminal organization. So far, over 40 activists have been charged with domestic terrorism for protesting the compound.

#Atlanta #Stop Cop City

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herukapadmajungiansworld · 10 months

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Switzerland has for years been the destination of choice for Russian oligarchs and corrupt officials to hide their stolen money. Swiss banks are estimated to hold over $200 billion in stashed Russian cash.

The United States recently opened an investigation into Swiss banks helping #Russia to evade sanctions, subpoenaing the two largest Swiss banks at the time. Switzerland is also key to Russian #evasion of export controls meant to ensure Russia cannot resupply its military and continue its war.

Russian-induced corruption within the Swiss law enforcement system led to the resignation of the former top prosecutor of Switzerland and the conviction of a senior Swiss law enforcement official on bribery charges. Switzerland is now primed to send millions in frozen Russian dirty money related to the revelations of Sergei Magnitsky to the Russians who stole it.

This hearing will examine Switzerland’s key role in laundering Russian money. Witnesses will discuss how Switzerland came to be a favorite destination for Russian dirty money, how Russian corruption in Switzerland endangers U.S. national security and the ability of Ukraine to defend itself, and possible policy responses. This hearing builds on years of work by the #Commission to hold Switzerland to account for its role in Russian money laundering and corruption.

The following witnesses are scheduled to testify:

1Bill Browder, Global Magnitsky Justice Campaign

2Drew Sullivan, Co-Founder, Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP)

3Olena Tregub, Secretary General, Independent Defense Anti-Corruption Committee (NAKO)

HEARING

Russia’s Alpine Assets: Money Laundering and Sanctions Evasion in Switzerland

July 18, 2023

1:00 p.m.

Senate Dirksen Building G50

Live stream:

youtube.com/watch?v=dxX98X…

#switerland #russian oligarchs #swiss banks #russian induced corruption #bribery charges against senior swiss law enforcement official #us national security #ukraine resistance #stop russian invasion #stop russian money laundering #give russian money in switerland to ukraine #ukraine war #help ukraine #give weapons to ukraine #i stand with ukraine #slava ukraini

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kp777 · 1 year

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By Thom Hartmann

Common Dreams

March 31, 2023

The Republican Party's most dangerous grift today has been their embrace of the lie that America is not a democracy but instead is a theocratic republic that should be ruled exclusively by armed Christian white men. It's leading us straight into the jaws of fascism.

Nobody ever accused Republicans of not knowing how to make a buck or BS-ing somebody into voting for them. Lying to people for economic or political gain is the very definition of a grift.

Whenever there’s another mass- or school-shooting, Republican politicians hustle out fundraising emails about how “Democrats are coming to take your guns!” The result is a measurable and profitable spike in gun sales after every new slaughter of our families and children, followed by a fresh burst of campaign cash to GOP lawmakers.

But the GOP’s ability to exploit any opportunity that comes along — regardless of its impact on America or American citizens — goes way beyond just fundraising hustles.

When Jared Kushner was underwater and nearly bankrupt because he overpaid for 666 Fifth Avenue and needed a billion-dollar bailout to cover his mortgage, his buddies in the Middle East (Saudi Arabia and the UAE) blockaded American ally (and host to the Fifth Fleet) Qatar until that country relented and laundered the money to Jared through a Canadian investment company.

Just this week, after Trump deregulated toxic trains leading to a horrible crash and the contamination of East Palestine, Ohio, Steve Bannon — already charged with multiple fraud-related crimes and then pardoned by Trump — showed up this week to hustle $300+ water filters to the people of that town.

The grift is at the core of the GOP’s existence, and has been since Nixon blew up LBJ’s peace talks with the Vietnamese in 1968 and then took cash bribes from the Milk Lobby and Jimmy Hoffa in the White House while having his mafia-connected “plumbers” wiretap the DNC’s offices at the Watergate.

— Republicans successfully fought the ability of Medicare to negotiate drug prices for decades; in turn, Big Pharma pours millions into their campaign coffers and personal pockets (legalized by 5 Republicans on the Supreme Court).

— Republicans beat back Democratic efforts to stop insurance giants from ripping off seniors and our government with George W. Bush’s Medicare Advantage privatization scam; in turn, the insurance companies rain cash on them like an Indian monsoon.

— Republicans oppose any effort to replace fossil fuels with green energy sources that don’t destroy our environment; in turn, the fossil fuel industry jacked up the price of gasoline into the stratosphere just in time for the 2022 election (and you can expect them to try it again in 2024).

— Republicans stopped enforcement of a century’s worth of anti-trust laws in 1983, wiping out America’s small businesses and turning rural city centers into ghost towns while pushing profits and prices through the ceiling; in turn massive corporate PACs fund ads supporting Republican candidates every election cycle.

— Republicans authored legislation letting billionaires own thousands of newspapers, radio stations, and TV outlets; in turn the vast majority of those papers (now half of all local papers are owned by a handful of rightwing New York hedge funds) and stations all run daily news and editorials attacking Democrats and supporting the GOP.

— Republicans Trump and Pai killed net neutrality so giant tech companies can legally spy on you and me, recording every website we visit and selling that information for billions; in turn, major social media sites amplify rightwing voices while giant search engines stopped spidering progressive news sites.

Newspeak — George Orwell’s term for the grift where politicians use fancy phrases that mean the opposite of what people think they mean — has been the GOP’s go-to strategy for a half-century.

Richard Nixon, for example, promised to crack down on drugs, but instead used that as an excuse to crack down on anti-war liberals and Black people. Instead of an economic grift, it was a political grift.

As Nixon‘s right hand man, John Ehrlichman, told reporter Dan Baum:

“You want to know what this was really all about? The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and Black people. Do you understand what I’m saying? “We knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or Black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and Blacks with heroin and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. “We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. “Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.“

The grift is a recurrent theme through Republican presidencies in the modern era.

Ronald Reagan told us if we just destroyed America’s unions and moved our manufacturing to China and Mexico, great job opportunities would fill the nation.

He followed that up by promising if we just cut taxes on the morbidly rich, prosperity would trickle-down to the rest of us.

Reagan even assured us that raising the Social Security retirement age to 67 and taxing Social Security benefits would mean seniors could retire with greater ease.

All, of course, were grifter’s lies. Republican presidents since Reagan have continued the tradition.

George W. Bush called his program to make it easier to clear-cut America’s forests and rip roads through wilderness areas the “Healthy Forests Initiative.”

His program to legalize more pollution from coal-fired power plants and immunize them from community lawsuits (leading to tens of thousands of additional lung- and heart-disease deaths in the years since) was named the “Clean Air Act.”

Bush’s scam to “strengthen” Medicare — “Medicare Advantage” — was a thinly disguised plan to privatize that program that is today draining Medicare’s coffers while making insurance executives richer than Midas.

Donald Trump told Americans he had the coronavirus pandemic under control while he was actually making the situation far worse: America had more deaths per capita from the disease than any other developed country in the world, with The Lancet estimating a half-million Americans died needlessly because of Trump’s grift.

Jared and Ivanka cashed in on their time in the White House to the tune of billions, while Trump squeezed hundreds of millions out of foreign governments, encouraging them to illegally pay him through rentals in his properties around the world.

Other Trump grifts — most leading to grateful industries or billionaires helping him and the GOP out — included:

— Making workplaces less safe — Boosting religious schools at the expense of public schools — Cutting relief for students defrauded by student loan sharks — Shrinking the safety net by cutting $60 billion out of food stamps — Forcing workers to put in overtime without getting paid extra for it — Pouring more pollution from fossil fuels into our fragile atmosphere — Gutting the EPA’s science operation — Rescinding rules that protected workers at federal contract sites — Dialing back car air pollution emissions standards — Reducing legal immigration of skilled workers into the US from “shithole countries” — Blocking regulation of toxic chemicals — Rolling back rules on banks, setting up the crisis of 2023 — Defenestrating rules against racially segregated housing

While Nixon was simply corrupt — a crook, to use his own term — in 1978 when five Republicans on the Supreme Court signed off on the Bellotti decision authored by Lewis Powell himself, giving corporations the legal right to bribe American politicians, the GOP went all in.

Ever since then, the GOP has purely been the party of billionaires and giant corporations, although their most successful political grift has been to throw an occasional bone to racists, gun-nuts, fascists, homophobes, and woman-haters to get votes.

Democrats at that time were largely funded by the unions, so it wasn’t until the 1990s, after Reagan had destroyed about half of America’s union jobs and gutted the unions’ ability to fund campaigns, that the Democratic Party under Bill Clinton was forced to make a big turn toward taking corporate cash.

Since Barack Obama showed how online fundraising could replace corporate cash, however, about half of the nation’s Democratic politicians have aligned with the Progressive Caucus and eschewed corporate money, returning much of the Party to its FDR and Great Society base.

The GOP, in contrast, has never wavered from lapping up corporate money in exchange for tax cuts, deregulation, and corporate socialism.

Their most dangerous grift today, though, has been their embrace of the lie that America is not a democracy but instead is a theocratic republic that should be ruled exclusively by armed Christian white men. It’s leading us straight into the jaws of fascism.

Bannon’s grift in East Palestine is the smallest of the small, after his being busted for a multi-million-dollar fraud in the “Build the Wall” scheme and others, but is still emblematic of the Republican strategy at governance.

When all you have to offer the people is a hustle, then at the very least, Republicans figure, you should be able to make a buck or gain/keep political power while doing it.

#republicans #gop #grift #common dreams

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aiolegalservices · 9 months

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AIO Legal Services: Your Legal Representatives in the UK

AIO Legal Services possesses a great deal of experience in effectively engaging and representing international entities and corporations across diverse regions worldwide, with a particular focus on the Middle East and Africa. This extensive experience has granted us invaluable insights, enabling us to offer exceptional legal solutions to a broad spectrum of entities across the globe, ensuring a…

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mariacallous · 12 days

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US senators Elizabeth Warren and Bill Cassidy have called for the Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security to redouble efforts to stop the use of cryptocurrency to pay for child sexual abuse material (CSAM) online, a problem they claim has worsened.

In a letter sent on Thursday, addressed to Attorney General Merrick Garland and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, the senators claim that the “pseudonymity” afforded by crypto transactions is helping those that trade in CSAM to evade detection by law enforcement.

Citing data from the US Treasury’s Financial Crime Enforcement Network as well as research from Chainalysis, a company that specializes in tracing crypto transactions, and the Internet Watch Foundation, a CSAM-focused charity, the letter asserts that the “use of cryptocurrency in the illicit trade of CSAM appears to be increasing.”

Between 2020 and 2022, financial institutions identified 1,800 bitcoin wallets suspected of engaging in transactions linked to child sexual exploitation or human trafficking, the letter states. Although the scale of the crypto-based market for CSAM decreased in 2023, Chainalysis found, an increase in sophistication among sellers allowed them to evade detection for far longer than in previous years.

The people participating in the trade of CSAM online use a variety of methods to conceal their activity, the senators claim, including using crypto mixing services and ATMs to conceal the origin of funds used in CSAM transactions and to launder the proceeds.

“These are deeply troubling findings revealing the extent to which cryptocurrency is the payment of choice for perpetrators of child sexual abuse and exploitation,” wrote the senators.

To jump-start a response, Warren and Cassidy have asked the DOJ and DHS to publish details of their own research into the scope of crypto’s role in the CSAM problem, as well as information about the challenges specific to prosecuting this category of crime. The senators have given the agencies until May 10 to respond to their questions.

For her frequent and voluble criticism of cryptocurrency and its role in illicit activity, Warren has become something of a villain in crypto circles. Lately, the senator has come under criticism for a piece of anti-money-laundering legislation she proposed in July 2023, which the Chamber of Digital Commerce, a crypto advocacy group, has claimed will “erase hundreds of billions of dollars in value for US startups and decimate the savings of countless Americans invested in this asset class legally.”

Warren has reiterated her stance that the crypto industry must follow the same stringent rules as other financial organizations in the US in order to prevent misuse by criminal actors, including vendors of CSAM.

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dreaminginthedeepsouth · 4 months

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LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

December 26, 2023

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

DEC 27, 2023

On December 26, 1991, the New York Times ran a banner headline: “Gorbachev, Last Soviet Leader, Resigns; U.S. Recognizes Republics’ Independence.” On December 25, Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev had resigned, marking the end of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, often referred to as the Soviet Union or USSR.

Former Soviet republics had begun declaring their independence in March 1990, the Warsaw Pact linking the USSR’s Eastern European satellites into a defense treaty dissolved by July 1991, and by December 1991 the movement had gathered enough power that Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine joined together in a “union treaty” as their leaders announced they were creating a new Commonwealth of Independent States. When almost all the other Soviet republics announced on December 21 that they were joining the new alliance, Gorbachev could either try to hold the USSR together by force or step down. He chose to step down, handing power to the president of the Russian Federation, Boris Yeltsin.

The dissolution of the USSR meant the end of the Cold War, and those Americans who had come to define the world as a fight between the dark forces of communism and the good forces of capitalism believed their ideology had triumphed. Two years ago, Gorbachev said that with the collapse of the Soviet Union, "They grew arrogant and self-confident. They declared victory in the Cold War."

The collapse of the USSR gave the branch of the Republican Party that wanted to destroy the New Deal confidence that their ideology was right. Believing that their ideology of radical individualism had destroyed the USSR, these so-called Movement Conservatives very deliberately set out to destroy what they saw as Soviet-like socialist ideology at home. As anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist wrote in the Wall Street Journal: “For 40 years conservatives fought a two-front battle against statism, against the Soviet empire abroad and the American left at home. Now the Soviet Union is gone and conservatives can redeploy. And this time, the other team doesn't have nuclear weapons.”

In the 1990s the Movement Conservatives turned their firepower on those they considered insufficiently committed to free enterprise, including traditional Republicans who agreed with Democrats that the government should regulate the economy, provide a basic social safety net, and promote infrastructure. Movement Conservatives called these traditional Republicans “Republicans in Name Only” or RINOs and said that, along with Democrats, such RINOs were bringing “socialism” to America.

With the “evil empire,” as President Ronald Reagan had dubbed the Soviet Union, no longer a viable enemy, Movement Conservatives, aided by new talk radio hosts, increasingly demonized their domestic political opponents. As they strengthened their hold on the Republican Party, Movement Conservatives cut taxes, slashed the social safety net, and deregulated the economy.

At the same time, the oligarchs who rose to power in the former Soviet republics looked to park their illicit money in western democracies, where the rule of law would protect their investments. Once invested in the United States, they favored the Republicans who focused on the protection of wealth rather than social services. For their part, Republican politicians focused on spreading capitalism rather than democracy, arguing that the two went hand in hand.

The financial deregulation that made the U.S. a good bet for oligarchs to launder money got a boost when, shortly after the September 11, 2001, attacks, Congress passed the PATRIOT Act to address the threat of terrorism. The law took on money laundering and the illicit funding of terrorism, requiring financial institutions to inspect large sums of money passing through them. But the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) exempted many real estate deals from the new regulations.

The United States became one of the money-laundering capitals of the world, with hundreds of billions of dollars laundered in the U.S. every year.

In 2011 the international movement of illicit money led then–FBI director Robert Mueller to tell the Citizens Crime Commission of New York City that globalization and technology had changed the nature of organized crime. International enterprises, he said, “are running multi-national, multi-billion dollar schemes from start to finish…. They may be former members of nation-state governments, security services, or the military…. These criminal enterprises are making billions of dollars from human trafficking, health care fraud, computer intrusions, and copyright infringement. They are cornering the market on natural gas, oil, and precious metals, and selling to the highest bidder…. These groups may infiltrate our businesses. They may provide logistical support to hostile foreign powers. They may try to manipulate those at the highest levels of government. Indeed, these so-called ‘iron triangles’ of organized criminals, corrupt government officials, and business leaders pose a significant national security threat.”

In 2021, Congress addressed this threat by including the Corporate Transparency Act in the National Defense Authorization Act. It undercut shell companies and money laundering by requiring the owners of any company that is not otherwise overseen by the federal government (by filing taxes, for example, or through close regulation) to file with FinCEN a report identifying (by name, birth date, address, and an identifying number) each person associated with the company who either owns 25% or more of it or exercised substantial control over it. The measure also increased penalties for money laundering and streamlined cooperation between banks and foreign law enforcement authorities.

But that act wouldn’t take effect for another three years.

Meanwhile, once in office, the Biden administration made fighting corruption a centerpiece of its attempt to shore up democracy both at home and abroad. In June 2021, Biden declared the fight against corruption a core U.S. national security interest. “Corruption threatens United States national security, economic equity, global anti-poverty and development efforts, and democracy itself,” he wrote. “But by effectively preventing and countering corruption and demonstrating the advantages of transparent and accountable governance, we can secure a critical advantage for the United States and other democracies.”

In March 2023 the Treasury told Congress that “[m]oney laundering perpetrated by the Government of the Russian Federation (GOR), Russian [state-owned enterprises], Russian organized crime, and Russian elites poses a significant threat to the national security of the United States and the integrity of the international financial system,” and it outlined the ways in which it had been trying to combat that corruption. “In light of Russia’s further invasion of Ukraine,” it said, “we must redouble our efforts to prevent Russia from abusing the U.S. financial system to sustain its war and counter Russian sanctioned individuals and firms seeking to exploit vulnerabilities in the U.S. financial system.”

The collapse of the USSR helped to undermine the Cold War democracy that opposed it. In the past 32 years we have torn ourselves apart as politicians adhering to an extreme ideology demonized their opponents. That demonization also helped to justify the deregulation of our economy and then the illicit money from the rising oligarchs it attracted, money that has corrupted our democratic system.

But there are at least signs that the financial free-for-all might be changing. The three years are up, and the Corporate Transparency Act will take effect on January 1, 2024.

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

#Heather Cox Richardson #Letters from an American #money laundering #the former Soviet Union #financial deregulation #movement conservatives #Corporate Transparency Act #corruption #history #the hard right

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