Financial Crime Weekly Episode 294

Welcome to episode 294 of the Financial Crime Weekly Podcast. I am Chris Kirkbride. In this episode, on sanctions enforcement, the UK has extended its Lukoil Bulgaria licence, the US has targeted North Korean IT worker fraud networks and sanctioned Rwanda’s Ministry of Defence, and Czech manufacturer Ferrit s.r.o. has secured the country's first corporate non-prosecution settlement in a Russia sanctions evasion probe. On fraud prosecutions, there is a $177m tax scheme indictment, a sentence for COVID-19 relief fraud, charges under "Operation Ghostbusters" targeting a global student financial aid ring, and the release of the US Justice Department's Eighth Annual Elder Justice Report. In regulatory updates and AML oversight, UNODC and Malta’s FIAU partnered to pilot the goSENTINEL supervisory platform, while the UK Legal Services Board has authorised the SRA to issue unlimited fines for economic crime violations. And finally, former US Army and Postal Service officials have pleaded guilty in procurement steering and bribery schemes, and a Syrian national has been sentenced for a state-sponsored cyber intrusion campaign. A transcript of this podcast, with links to the stories, will be available at www.crimes.financial.   The photograph on the podcast cover art is by Sora Shimazaki at Pexels, and the stinger sample between each news section is ‘Ben Logo 1’ by BenKirb from Pixabay.