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.
SMART TEXTILE MANUFACTURERS TO BENEFIT FROM RECOVERY OF SEMICONDICTOR SUPPLY CHAINS
Smart textiles manufacturers affected by the shortage of electronics for their products may receive respite in 2023 as global supplies of components increase, even if some disruption of production and supply chain lingers.
According to 2022 research by US investment bank J.P.…
AD HOC ADVICE ON LAUNDERING DIRTY MONEY OFFERS WIDE RANGE OF TYPOLOGY INFORMATION TO AMLOs
How to launder a sack of ill-gotten cash is a question that does not just stretch the imaginations of law enforcers and AML officers, it can and does prompt useful assessments by professionals in other fields.
The question of how to launder USD1 million in dirty money is, for instance, a popular thread on the international online Q&A service Quora, with 84 answers.…
ETHIOPIA CLOTHING EXPERTS CALL FOR AGOA RESTORATION FOLLOWING TIGRAY PEACE DEAL
As Ethiopia approaches the one-year anniversary since the USA’s Biden administration suspended the country from its African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) privileges over human rights abuses, a senior union leader hopes these rights will be restored in 2023. (1)
With the Ethiopian and rebel Tigray governments agreeing a ceasefire last week (Nov 2), to forge a long-term peace following two years’ armed conflict, Kassahun Follo, president of the Confederation of Ethiopian Trade Unions (CETU), an alliance of trade unions, said the AGOA expulsion led to a loss of more than 5,600 jobs in Ethiopia’s flagship Hawassa Industrial Park alone – a key textile and clothing manufacturing hub.…
EU COURT INVALIDATES GENERAL PUBLIC ACCESS TO BO INFORMATION IN 5AMLD
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has invalidated a European Union (EU) requirement that information on the beneficial ownership (BO) of companies “is accessible in all cases to any member of the general public”. This is enshrined in the fifth anti-money laundering directive (5AMLD), but the requirement has been overturned by a November 22 ruling (1) on two cases referred by a Luxemburg court.…
POSSUM FIBRE: A SUNSET INDUSTRY AIMING FOR DIVERSIFICATION
New Zealand has been harvesting quality fibre from brushtail possums for decades, however, a new government native species conservation plan means the industry – in NZ at least – may have limited time to survive.
The animals, native to Australia, have caused considerable environmental damage across the Tasman Sea in NZ since their introduction in the 1830s.…
LARGE DENOMINATION BANKNOTES REMAIN ML VULBERABILUTY
High value banknotes remain of concern to AML regulators, even though they are increasingly being withdrawn from circulation. Despite the growth of electronic payments, the amount of physical cash in circulation remains huge. The USD remains the currency that circulates most widely in the world, with the US Currency Education Programme (a Federal Reserve scheme) saying that there was USD2 trillion in circulation by the start of 2021 (December 31, 2020).…
TRANSPORT OF GOODS AND PEOPLE OFFERS COMPLEXITY AND OPACITY AIDING FRAUDSTERS
The surge in e-commerce promoted by the Covid-19 pandemic has sparked a significant increase in fraud in goods delivery, with ‘shipping fraud’ becoming the “fastest growing type of digital fraud worldwide in 2021”, according to a Global Digital Fraud Trends report 2022 report from TransUnion.…
COURT CONVICTS USD3.36 BILLION DARK WEB SCAM CRYPTO FRAUDSTER WHO HID BITCOIN IN BATHROOM
The crypto fraudster behind a massive Bitcoin fraud using the notorious former online darknet black market Silk Road, used by drug dealers and other criminals, has been convicted after pleading guilty on November 4 in a New York court. US citizen James Zhong admitted wire fraud when he unlawfully obtained over 50,000 Bitcoin from the Silk Road marketplace in September 2012, one year before it was shut down by US authorities.…
CRAFT BREWERS INCREASE SALES OF DIVERSE BEERS IN NORDIC AND BALTIC MARKETS
The Nordic and Baltic beer markets are increasingly diverse, with craft beer sales growing faster than those for standard beers across the region, with only Lithuania bucking the trend. According to UK-based market researcher GlobalData (which owns Just Drinks), sales of craft beers Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Estonia and Latvia have all seen significant sales increases over the past five years with many exhibiting double-digit growth.…
UKRAINE TEXTILE STRUGGLES ON, DESPITE RUSSIAN INVASION
After more than eight months of persistent Russian attacks on Ukrainian industry and infrastructure, causing nearly USD10 billion (1) in damages to Ukraine’s industry and business services alone, Ukraine’s textile production sector limps on; though far from unscathed.
According to information from Ukrlegprom, the Ukrainian Association of Light Industry Enterprises, in the northern Ukrainian city of Chernihiv, sieged by Russian forces in the early stages of the war, one textile company factory was completely destroyed, 11 heavily damaged, and nine have lost profitability as a result of the invasion.…