The ACAMS Connection is a bi-weekly e-newsletter exclusive to ACAMS members. It provides members with a snapshot of anti-money laundering (AML) current events, the latest trends in financial crime and updates on what is new to the ACAMS community. The ACAMS Connection is the trusted source by ACAMS members for staying on top of industry best practices. Click here to subscribe to the ACAMS Connection newsletter.  

Recently Featured

The BSA Tractor

You may have read it in magazines or seen the news or videos of some altruistic country sending modern tractors to aid farmers in developing nations. It seems surprising when they return later to find all the tractors in disrepair, with some now even being pulled by teams of horses. Some reactions blame the farmers for either ignorance or ungratefulness.


Keeping Up with the Financial Action Task Force and Beyond, with David Lewis

In this episode of “Financial Crime Matters,” Kieran Beer talks with David Lewis, executive secretary of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) from 2015 to 2022, about the FATF’s recent plenary that gray listed South Africa and Nigeria, formally suspended Russia from membership, and criticized governments throughout the world for lax oversight of cryptocurrency businesses. Currently head of global anti-money laundering (AML) at Kroll,


Trade Finance Risk and Controls

Trade finance is described as the provision of finance and services by financial institutions (FIs) for the movement of goods and services between two points

Trade finance is described as the provision of finance and services by financial institutions (FIs) for the movement of goods and services between two points, either within a country or across borders.


Previously Featured

FinCEN’s Cybercrime and Cybersecurity Policies

The article titled “FinCEN’s AML and Terrorist Financing Priorities: An Introduction,”1 featured in the ACAMS Today 12th Law Enforcement Edition, shared general thoughts, basic definitions and practical examples on each of the national anti-money laundering (AML) priorities. This article, the fourth of the series, will discuss cybercrime and relevant cybersecurity and virtual currency considerations in greater detail.



Machine Learning: A Game-Changer in the Fight Against Money Laundering

Financial crime, including money laundering, is an illicit growing industry, and criminals are getting increasingly sophisticated. Financial institutions (FIs) are deeply involved in combating this. In North America alone, they spent a little less than $50 billion on compliance in 2021. But banks typically use rule-…

Financial crime, including money laundering, is an illicit growing industry,


Dissecting the Mafia: Sicily’s Cosa Nostra

For the past 100 years, the mafia’s brutal and lawless presence has influenced everything from pop culture to history, extending beyond Italy’s borders to impact crime around the world. The word mafia is used as an informal term for four major groups: Calabria’s ‘Ndrangheta, Campania’s Camorra, Puglia’s Sacra Corona Unita and the most influential of the groups,


The Importance of Regular Independent AML Audits

The legal and regulatory landscape of the anti-money laundering/counter-terrorist financing (AML/CTF) sector is in constant flux and necessitates a dedicated function to assess the level of compliance and the effectiveness of obliged entities’ policies, procedures, measures and controls regularly. External independent AML audits are key to uncovering the major pain points surrounding the obliged entities’ AML/CTF procedures and controls by providing an objective,


How Britain Became Butler to the World’s Financial Criminals, with Oliver Bullough

In this episode of “Financial Crime Matters,” Kieran Beer talks with Oliver Bullough, award-winning reporter for The Guardian, about his latest book, Butler to the World: How Britain Became the Servant of Tycoons, Tax Dodgers, Kleptocrats and Criminals. During their conversation, Bullough details how Britain and its territories became a favored facilitator for many of the world’s kleptocrats,


Human Trafficking: Persona-based Typologies and Methodology

Editor’s note: This article is the first of a two-part series on human trafficking typologies and methodology. Human trafficking (HT) has been widely researched and discussed in different forums and from different perspectives. Most recently, ACAMS Today’s brilliant three-part series, “Understanding Human Trafficking,”1 clarified key HT concepts, definitions and business models that are useful for every anti-financial crime (AFC) professional to understand.


The Fraudulent Candidate Phenomenon

I thought I had finished writing articles about the effects of the pandemic on work and the employment market. I discussed working from home, returning to the office, the growth of fintech and the renaissance of digital banking and how the new normal would look. But it is time to speak about one of the most interesting and scandalous byproducts of the COVID-19 pandemic: The fraudulent candidate.


Matt Richardson: Preventing Human Trafficking and Online Exploitation

ACAMS Today spoke with Matt Richardson about anti-human trafficking (HT) efforts and the future of HT, his participation in “Dark Highway” (an HT documentary that is being televised in Canada and the U.S.) and the different methods for maximizing online safety. Richardson is director of Intelligence and Investigations with the Anti-Human Trafficking Intelligence Initiative (ATII).


Human Trafficking: Detection and Investigations

Editor’s note: This article is the second of a two-part series on human trafficking typologies and methodology. The first part of this series, “Human Trafficking: Persona-based Typologies and Methodology,”1 re-emphasized the scale of the human trafficking (HT) problem and the key investigation challenges to tackle, including the need to reconsider the current HT detection and investigation approach.


Effective Compliance Programs Have One Thing in Common

According to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), financial institutions (FIs) should be required to implement programs against money laundering and terrorist financing. The program

According to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), financial institutions (FIs) should be required to implement programs against money laundering and terrorist financing.1 The program should support the development of prevention and mitigation measures that are commensurate to the financial crime risk faced.


Justyna Gudzowska and Dan Tannebaum on Looking Ahead to 2023

“As we look at Ukraine, as we look at these unprecedented sanctions, we really have to close the loopholes that are created by the Wagner Group’s presence in many countries around the world, in particular in Africa.” The “Sanctions Space” podcast is back! Justine Walker is joined by Dan Tannebaum, Atlantic Council, and Justyna Gudzowska, The Sentry.


Dozens of Whistleblowers Have Contacted FinCEN Since December: Sources

More than 50 people have secretly flagged anti-money laundering deficiencies and sanctions evasion to U.S. officials in the month since Congress bolstered a fledgling, federal whistleblower program, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter told ACAMS moneylaundering.com. Click here to read the full article.


Small Town Politics, Big Time Thefts

The Front Royal-Warren County area of Virginia is known for its rolling hills and quiet suburbs. Despite its proximity to Washington, D.C., Front Royal remains far removed from the hustle of a larger city. Its citizens are tight-knit and proud of their local community. Thus, the shock felt by the community was palpable when one of their own betrayed them.


Elvis and the Fraud Triangle

In 2022, Warner Brothers released the movie Elvis, which explores the complex and sometimes contentious relationship between the King of Rock and Roll, Elvis Presley, and his longtime manager, Colonel Tom Parker, played by Hollywood icon Tom Hanks.


Fighting the Online Exploitation of Children, With Jonathan Dupont and Tiffany Polyak

In this episode of “Financial Crime Matters,” Kieran Beer talks with Jonathan Dupont, a financial intelligence investigator for Western Union, and Tiffany Polyak, anti-financial crime (AFC) associate at ACAMS, about the growth in online sexual exploitation of children and the related rise in child sexual abuse materials on the internet.


Beneficial Owners and Sanctions Against Russia: Compliance in 2023

The ball has dropped, the fireworks have faded, and the new year has arrived with new anti-money laundering rules, sanctions and other compliance-related responsibilities on the near horizon for the global financial services industry. Moneylaundering.com reporters Koos Couvée, Gabriel Vedrenne, Fred Williams and Benjamin Hardy asked regulators, investigators, attorneys, consultants and other sources to share their opinions on what the next 12 months hold in store for anti-financial crime professionals.


Sanctions, Shell Companies and Superyachts: Compliance in 2022

If years were disgruntled spouses, 2022 threw everything at us but the kitchen sink, starting with political turmoil in Britain, a criminal referral against a former U.S. president, uprisings in Iran, a standoff between superpowers near Taiwan and a decoupling of the global economy. Click here to read the full article.