FORMER PRESIDENT'S BROTHER HAS SENTENCE CONFIRMED

Roh Geon-pyeong (UID 140146), the elder brother of the late former Korean President Roh Moo-hyun, has had his commuted sentence of two and a half years for graft confirmed by the Supreme court. Roh reportedly returned the 300 million won he took in bribes. Many of the former President's aides were convicted of having taken bribes from his financial supporter Park Yeon-cha (UID 981880), the CEO of a shoemaking company. To see who was connected to the bribery scandal take a look at Park's profile on World-Check Online.

US SEC CHARGES HEDGEFUND ADVISERS WITH FRAUD

A Florida-based father and son team of investment advisers has been charged with securities fraud by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). They are accused of distributing fraudulent information which overstated the value of three hedge funds by as much as $160 million. The SEC assocaite director in Miami said that they 'led investors to believe that they were faithfully managing funds invested with them...instead, they abdicated their responsibilities to investors and ignored warning signs that should have alerted them to the fraud that was occurring all around them."

David Murcia (UID 580955) who has been accused of defrauding investors out of an alleged US$920 million has been extradited from Bogota, Colombia to face charges in the US. He was captured in Panama in November 2008 and deported to Colombia where he was sentenced to 30 years in jail for illegally raising funds through pyramid schemes and money laundering.To read about this case in more detail you can access the verified sources on his profile on World-Check Online.

CALIFORNIAN SENTENCED TO NINE YEARS FOR MORTGAGE FRAUD

Benjamin Osmanson (UID 962181) has been sentenced to nine years in jail and ordered to pay US$12 million in restitution after he pleaded guilty in September 2009 to three counts of conspiracy, wire fraud and money laundering. Osmanson reportedly ran a scheme in which he defrauded lenders by submitting false loan applications in the names of "investors." His co-accused was sentenced to six months in jail and ordered to pay $3.6 million in restitution.

TWO BRITONS JAILED FOR 'BOILER ROOM' SCHEME

Martyn Jagger (UID 1181311) and Daniel Healy (UID 1181328) have been sentenced to three and a half years and eighteen months respectively for running a £1 million boiler room scheme from Spain. The pair persuaded victims to buy overpriced or worthless company shares. Authorities are now reportedly launching proceedings to seize Jagger and Healy's assets under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

CANADA ARRESTS MAN FOR ALLEGED THIRTY MILLION DOLLAR FRAUD

An individual who is alleged to have defruaded investors who lived in Canda, the US and China of approximately US$30 million between January 2006 and March 2009, has been arrested on his arrival back in Canada from Hong Kong. He has reportedly admitted that he failed to disclose losses, fabricated investor account statment and that he lost all the money.

This week, the six member countries of ALBA, the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas, have adopted a virtual regional currency, the SUCRE*, as an alternative to the US Dollar. The first transaction, scheduled for the coming week, will be a sale of rice, from Venezuela to Cuba. The problem is that, since Cuba is listed as a state sponsor of terrorism, that all transactions between the Cuban Government and US citizens, residents, and entities, constitute OFAC violations. Will this new virtual currency be tainted ab initio, due to the Cuban connection? Can it be accepted outside the ALBA association, and will any SUCRE transactions incriminate the holders? This is dangerous territory for financial institutions. …read more

The Middle East and North Africa Financial Action Task Force (MENAFATF) are to form a review mechanism to help the banking system and private sector in identifying indicators and trends, and to assess the threat of money laundering and terrorist financing within their area.

KENYAN PRESIDENT SIGNS PROCEEDS OF CRIME AND AML ACT INTO LAW

President Kibaki has signed into law the proceeds of Crime and Anti Money Laundering Act and Arbitration (amendment) Act which provided mechanisms for detecting and seizing the proceeds of money laundering. According to a US State Department report Sh7 billion earnings from drug trafficking is laundered in Kenya’s financial system. It is hoped that the amended will go some way to bringing those who commit money laundering to book and also provide a way to effectively seize the ill gotten gains.

TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO EMBARK ON FINANCIAL SYSTEMS UPGRADE

Trinidad and Tobago's Central Bank Governor has emphasised that a proper financial system needs to be in place before the country can effectively be protected from money laundering and other financial crimes. He said "the systemic risk for money laundering has increased over the past few years. Firstly, our economy has become more open as barriers to trade and financial clauses have been eliminated. In addition to that, we have become an important regional financial centre and that necessarily brings with it the potential to attack both legal and illegal financial passage."

TURKMENISTAN SETS UP FINANCIAL MONITORING UNIT

Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov has signed a decree on the establishment of the Office of Financial Monitoring which will fall under the Ministry of Finance of Turkmenistan's ambit. This new office will be entrusted with enhancing the efficiency of activities related to prevention, detection and suppression of money laundering and terrorism financing.

EVENTS

In 2010 World-Check will be holding Seminars across the globe, watch the website for details of where and when.

Delivered by experts in their respective fields World-Check Seminars offer compliance professionals across all industries insight into topical and relevant issues.

In addition if you have any queries concerning World-Check events or would like more information on upcoming Seminars. please contact us at events@world-check.com. Our team will be happy to assist you.

If you are interested in finding out more about country risk you can read about our jurisdictional risk index Country-Check on the website by clicking here or alternatively visit Country-Check for a more comprehensive overview.

For information and frequently asked questions please visit our website by clicking here.