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International News Services archives articles supplied to clients one year or more after initial publication. These articles are protected by a password and not made available to readers without permission from clients. They are used as a background resource by agency journalists. Upon client requests, International News Services will remove such articles from the archive or not upload them in the first place. They are included to demonstrate the breadth of topics undertaken by the agency and also to help promote clients’ coverage.

SBF MAY NOT MAR THE BAHAMAS’ IMPROVING AML REPUTATION



While The Bahamas has recently been subject to unwelcome publicity about financial crime being committed on its territory, courtesy of the Sam Bankman-Fried scandal, its government has steadily been undertaking solid work to improve its AML/CFT performance.

Bankman-Fried, or SBF as he is widely known, is facing ML charges in the USA, which was part of the reason he was extradited from The Bahamas in December (2022), along with securities and wire fraud charges associated with his stewardship of crypto-exchange FTX (1).…

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WHISTLEBLOWER RULES GATHER STRENGTH WORLDWIDE



Time was that whistleblowing laws were a novelty. No longer – they are increasingly commonplace in developed economy jurisdictions and offer a widening range of protections.

Take the USA. A bipartisan bill was proposed in March (2023) by Republican Senator Chuck Grassley and Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren to strengthen whistleblower protections at the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).…

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FASHION SECTOR EXPLORES AI POTENTIAL TO BOOST SUSTAINABILITY



FASHION sector companies, across the value chain, are making continued efforts to leverage the potential of new artificial intelligence (AI) systems to boost sustainability through reducing waste and optimising production.  

Apparel supply chain experts speaking to Just Style have stressed how leading brands from luxury to fast fashion retailers are investing in AI to improve the efficiency and sustainability of their business models.…

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UK JAIL RATE FOR FRAUD FALLS ALMOST 95% IN A DECADE



The UK jail rate for fraud has fallen almost 95% in a decade, with fewer than one in 3,000 offences ending up with a criminal conviction and prison term, according to an analysis by the opposition Labour Party. It berated this “collapse” in convictions for Britain’s most common crime.…

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EU ROUND UP – QATARGATE SCANDAL FALLOUT PUSHES ANTI-GRAFT REFORMS AT EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT



The Qatargate scandal continues to encourage the European Parliament and other European Union (EU) institutions to tighten protections against graft and inappropriate influence, especially from non-EU governments.

Its key suspect Greek MEP Eva Kaili has been under house arrest since May and has (as of July) yet to revisit the parliament, where she remains a full member.…

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CHATGPT AND RELATED AI SYSTEMS CAN AID ANTI-FRAUD, BUT ALSO HELP FRAUDSTERS



The advent of large language model (LLM) artificial intelligence systems such as ChatGPT could be a major boon for anti-fraud professionals – but as with any innovative technology, it must be handled with care as the risks are assessed, experts warn.…

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UK SUPREME COURT SAYS BANKS HAVE NO DUTY TO BLOCK TRANSACTIONS OVER FRAUD FEARS



Britain’s Barclays Bank has won a UK Supreme Court appeal, with justices saying that UK banks must act on all customer instructions and not be liable should a payment be fraudulent, such as being an authorised push payment fraud (APP) (1).…

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NIGERIAN’S ASSETS CONFISCATED A DECADE AFTER CONVICTION



A Nigerian politician convicted of corruption over a decade ago has finally seen the GBP101.5 million (USD130 million) he laundered into the UK confiscated by Southwark Crown Court in London. The former governor of Nigeria’s oil-rich Delta state, James Ibori, had been convicted on 10 counts of money laundering and conspiracy to defraud the Nigerian state and its people in the UK during February 2012.…

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BANGLADESH’S FINISHING SECTOR SPREADS WINGS



Against the backdrop of a still growing apparel manufacturing industry, with a diversifying export portfolio and a billion-dollar local apparel market, the Bangladesh textile chemical industry is thriving. Indeed, locally-owned and international companies in this south Asian outsourcing hub are increasingly setting up plants to reduce their import-dependence for finishing chemicals.…

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EU/WTO ROUND UP – EU PROPOSES NEW GENETICALLY-ALTERED FOOD REGIME



The European Commission has proposed new legislation offering more flexibility to food technologists creating new foods based on altering the genetic structure of plants. A new suggested EU regulation would create streamlined controls for plants created by ‘new genetic techniques’ or NGTs, that are less rigorous than the existing assessments and restrictions undertaken for genetically modified (GM) foodstuffs.…

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