The Europe Express column features anti-financial crime-related content with a regional focus in Europe from subject-matter experts. If you would like to contribute to this column or have any topics you would like to suggest, please email editor@acams.org.
Our award-winning regular contributor is Stefano Siggia, CAMS, senior consultant at the Brussels-based regulatory and compliance consultancy firm Pideeco. Siggia was born in Italy but grew up in Bangladesh, China, Germany and Belgium, where he currently resides. After earning his bachelor’s degree in international affairs from Vesalius College and a master’s degree in international relations from the Brussels School of International Studies
(University of Kent), he worked at Banca Monte Paschi Belgio.
United States (US) Democratic Senator Carl Levin had just joined the Senate Homeland Security Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI) as chair when he learned of a troubling audit conducted by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (Fed). In their review of the anti-money laundering...
As the ACAMS France Chapter celebrated its 10th anniversary, it held three significant events: one on money laundering and two on corruption. Usually, money laundering techniques are observed from the lens of regulated professionals.1 Quentin Mugg, the first ACAMS France Chapter guest, heads the anti-drugs...
This article will focus on the five characteristics that make Great Britain a singular territory in terms of financial crime and―more particularly―money laundering. The eurodollar market, offshore financial centers (OFCs), non-bank financial intermediation, the real estate sector (particularly in London) and the legal structures that...
ChatGPT suffers from hallucinations―an ailment that its creator, OpenAI, is unable to cure. It is under these pretenses that in April 2024, the Austrian data privacy nonprofit organization, NOYB, founded by privacy activist Max Schrems, filed a complaint against OpenAI with the Austrian Data Protection...
The article on investment funds and their exposure to anti-money laundering/counter-terrorist financing (AML/CTF) risks, published in ACAMS Today in 2021,1 discusses venture capital firms and private equity funds and how these face AML risks throughout a fund’s lifecycle—from fundraising and investing, to their exit. Financial...
In early 2024, a finance officer in Hong Kong was wary of an email received from the chief financial officer of a UK-based company, concerning a secret transaction. A video call was organised to quell his doubts, and behind his screen sat the originator of...
It does not take an expert in football (or soccer, as it is known in some parts of the world) to recognize that the sport has a corruption problem. From the widely reported 2015 FIFA corruption scandal to the controversial awarding of the FIFA World...
Qatargate sent shock waves around the EU and served as a pertinent reminder of the heightened corruption risks posed by politically exposed persons (PEPs). The status of a PEP figure like Eva Kaili, former European Parliament member, is associated with privileged decision-making powers, accompanied by...
Russia is currently the world’s most-sanctioned country in history. The number of currently active sanctions against Russia exceeds 18,800, which is four times more than the sanctions against Iran and almost nine times more than those against North Korea.1 Nevertheless, in 2023, the growth rate...
In the summer of 2023, a peculiar political issue made headlines in Austria: The conservative government, responding to cross-party concerns about a digital euro initiative, began exploring ways to establish a right to cash payments in the constitution. A few other countries have had similar...
Our award-winning regular contributor is Stefano Siggia, CAMS, senior consultant at the Brussels-based regulatory and compliance consultancy firm Pideeco. Siggia was born in Italy but grew up in Bangladesh, China, Germany and Belgium, where he currently resides. After earning his bachelor’s degree in international affairs from Vesalius College and a master’s degree in international relations from the Brussels School of International Studies
