Archive
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.
MEPS PUSH BACK AGAINST ECJ RULING ON BENEFICIAL OWNERSHIP REGISTER ACCESS
Key European Parliament (EP) committees have pushed back against the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruling last November (2022) that said the European Union (EU) had allowed excessive access to beneficial ownership (BO) registers, breaching EU privacy rights.
In approved proposed amendments to AML/CFT reforms under discussion by the EU, the EP’s economic and monetary affairs committee and civil liberties, justice and home affairs committee said that persons with legitimate interest, such as journalists, civil society organisations and higher education institutions, should have access to BO registers, including a planned interconnected EU central register.…
FATF URGES PROACTIVE WIDE-RANGING CHECKS TO ASSESS ACCURACY OF BENEFICIAL OWNERSHIP DECLARATIONS
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has advised governments to take a proactive approach to ensuring beneficial ownership (BO) information is accurate, using a wide range of data sources and cross-checking declarations for accuracy. (1) Its new detailed guidance advises on implementing its updated Recommendation 24 on beneficial ownership (BO), which was released last March (2022), requiring governments to ensure “competent authorities have access to adequate, accurate and up-to-date information on the true owners of companies”.…
CAN ANYONE BE A VICTIM OF FRAUD? PSYCHOLOGISTS PROBE THE SUSCEPTIBILITY OF PERSONALITY TYPES
Psychologists have called for more spending on research into what personality types may be more susceptible to fraud, given more than GBP4 billion (USD4.billion) was lost to fraudsters in 2022 in the UK, according to a Money.co.uk study. (1) In the USA, consumer fraud alone caused losses of USD8.8 billion in 2022, an increase of more than 30% on 2021, according to the Federal Trade Commission.…
BUSINESS EMAIL COMPROMISE THREAT GROWS, WHILE PHONE-BASED CLONE VOICE SCAMS EMERGE
Business email compromise (BEC) fraud is growing so fast worldwide, it is regarded by the USA’s Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to be “a major threat to the global economy”. In a report written for the US congress last November (2022), the FBI said in the USA during 2021, the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) received BEC-related complaints with claimed losses exceeding USD2.4 billion, and USD43 billion between July 2016 and December 2021 (1).…
EU/WTO ROUND UP - UKRAINE FOOD FLOODS INTO EUROPE
As the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine passes – with 8,173 civilians killed as of March 5 (UN figures), the European Union (EU) has been debating dealing with a boom in Ukrainian food imports. While Ukraine food exporters have struggled to ship output via maritime ports, because of Russian naval action, the EU has strengthened road and rail land connections, plus riverine Danube ports.…
PORTUGUESE MILK PRODUCTION STRUGGLES DESPITE RISING PRICES
Portugal’s milk production sector has been shrinking, with long-standing vulnerabilities worsened by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has increased feed and energy costs. Even though contraction has been halted in the past six months by rising milk prices, the industry remains fragile and vulnerable to economic headwinds.…
QATARGATE ROCKS EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT’S REPUTATION FOR CLEAN POLITICS
The European Parliament’s (EP) reputation as a mostly harmless and clean international democratic assembly has taken a serious knock through the ‘Qatargate’ scandal. Keith Nuthall reports.
Belgium’s federal police, working with Belgian prosecutor Michel Claise, have uncovered what they claim is a serious network of graft, where the natural gas-rich Gulf state of Qatar is alleged to have subverted elected European Union (EU) officials.…
ANGOLA GOVERNMENT SEEKS TO SEIZE USD 1 BILLION FROM FORMER PRESIDENT’S DAUGHTER
Isabel dos Santos, once known as the richest women in Africa, and daughter of Angola’s former President. is facing a tightening noose of legal action alleging corruption and embezzlement. Keith Nuthall and Andreia Nogueira report.
The Angola government has ramped up its efforts to arrest Isabel dos Santos, and confiscate many of her assets, following the death of her father, the former President of Angola, José Eduardo dos Santos, last July (2022).…
CHINA PUSHES SOY PRODUCTION AS EDIBLE OIL CONSUMPTION STRUGGLES THROUGH ECONOMIC DISRUPTION
Food security concerns have driven China’s ministry of agriculture and rural affairs to push Chinese soy output in the past two years as growing tension with its main western trading partners – coupled with the inflationary impact of the invasion of Ukraine – has preoccupied officials at the ministry’s complex in the Tuanjiehu neighbourhood of Beijing.…
FATF SUSPENDS RUSSIA FROM MEMBERSHIP
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) has suspended Russia from membership because of its continuing military invasion of Ukraine – an unprovoked attack that the UN said by February 20 had killed 8,006 civilians and injured 13,287.
The global AML body’s plenary today (Feb 24) acted following “reports of arms trade between the Russian Federation and United Nations sanctioned jurisdictions, and malicious cyber-activities emanating from Russia”.…