Criminals Use Cryptocurrencies to Launder, Extort and Steal Money

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Criminals Use Cryptocurrencies to Launder, Extort and Steal Money

Cryptocurrencies are no longer new nor nascent, but they are still a popular vehicle by which criminals use to extort, launder and steal money. “I remember when ransomware started, they [criminals] used PayPal,” said Costel Ion, CFE, director - principal investigator at Deutsche Bank in his virtual session at the 2020 ACFE Fraud Conference Europe. “Now ransomware criminals are using many forms of cryptocurrencies.”

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Leveraging Anti-Money Laundering Controls to Detect and Report Corruption

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Leveraging Anti-Money Laundering Controls to Detect and Report Corruption

The major global corruption scandals that have made headlines in recent years, from Malaysia’s 1MDB scandal to the Russian and Azerbaijani laundromats, illustrate how the associated crimes are dependent upon the ability to launder illicit proceeds across borders. As financial institutions grapple with detecting and preventing money laundering, their efforts are resulting in a more unified concept of risk management. One which no longer views money laundering, bribery and corruption, sanction-evading and other financial crimes as separate issues to be dealt with individually, but as an interconnected spectrum of fraud.

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Muddy Money: The Dirty Truth About Political Corruption

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Muddy Money: The Dirty Truth About Political Corruption

Corrupt politicians are a common trope in society, but what's more uncommon is how to spot the red flags of shady dealings. In "Targeting the Proceeds of Political Corruption," Michael Schidlow, CFE, CAMS-Audit, head of financial crime risk training and emerging risk advisory at HSBC Bank, took attendees on a ride through the world of political corruption combining pop culture references with infamous real-world examples involving names like Gaddafi and Putin. 

Schidlow clearly conveyed the message that political corruption is a massive problem with a wide range of consequences that affect everyone in the world.

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3 Countries, 3 Murders and 1 CFE's Determination to Speak for Those Who Can't Speak for Themselves

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3 Countries, 3 Murders and 1 CFE's Determination to Speak for Those Who Can't Speak for Themselves

Jeff Filliter was working at a bank in Canada when he was flown to Mexico City to investigate the murder of a 41-year-old branch manager who was last seen entering the back seat of a black Jaguar after work a few days earlier. What Filliter, a CFE and investigator of more than 40 years, relayed to attendees at the 2017 ACFE Fraud Conference Canada in Toronto earlier this month was a story straight out of a Netflix series. The six-year, multijurisdictional fraud and money laundering investigation is also the subject of Filliter’s newly released book, The Shallowest of Men.

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