International news agency
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.

Search Results for: Latvia

10 results out of 449 results found for 'Latvia'.

EU COUNTRIES FAILING TO COMPLY WITH PUBLIC UBO REGISTER RULES



Long after the January 10, 2020, deadline set by the European Union’s (EU) 5th anti-money laundering directive (5AMLD) (1) for member states to establish public ultimate beneficial ownership (UBO) registers, a Transparency International (TI) report (2) has alleged widespread non-compliance.…

Read more

COVID-19 TOBACCO SMUGGLING AND COUNTERFEITING IS BOON FOR ORGANISED CRIME



 

Covid-19 has reshaped commercial crime, and one lucrative offence taking a real turn for the worse is tobacco smuggling and counterfeiting. Keith Nuthall reports.

 

The Covid-19 pandemic has depressed incomes worldwide and forced lower income smokers to look for cheap smokes, which has included counterfeits or smuggled goods.…

Read more

FLOATING WIND POWER RAMPS-UP AS DEVELOPER PONDER REDUCING COSTS



Oil companies decarbonising their portfolios are getting out their cheque books for floating offshore wind projects.

Bottom-fixed offshore wind farms familiar in some places worldwide are generally limited to water no more than about 60 metres deep. Beyond that, it becomes economically unfeasible to connect the increasingly large turbine assemblies to the seafloor by either monopile or jacket foundations.…

Read more

COVID-19 TOBACCO SMUGGLING AND COUNTERFEITING IS BOON FOR ORGANISED CRIME



 

There is no doubt that the Covid-19 pandemic has fuelled the black-market trade in illicit and smuggled licit tobacco products. The disease has depressed income and forced lower income smokers to look for cheap smokes, which has included counterfeits or smuggled goods.…

Read more

EU COUNTRIES DRAGGING THEIR FEET OVER PUBLIC UBO REGISTERS



Many of European Union’s 27 member states appear to have been dragging their feet when implementing a key provision of the fifth anti-money laundering directive (5AMLD) (1), setting up a public ultimate beneficial ownership (UBO) register.  The registers should have gone live for the corporate world on January 10, 2020, and two months later on March 10 for trusts.…

Read more

EUROPEAN COURT OF AUDITORS CALL FOR SIMPLIFIED EU SPENDING PROCEDURES TO ROOT OUT FRAUD AND ERROR



THE EUROPEAN Union’s (EU) financial watchdog has stressed how the EU needs to simplify its spending systems, which would make fraud is tougher to commit and easier to detect. The EU Court of Auditors has formally issued an ‘adverse opinion’ on the audited expenditure during 2019 of the 27-country union.…

Read more

NEW EU PUBLIC PROSECUTOR CALLS FOR GOVERNMENTS TO STEP UP TO THE PLATE ON EPPO



The European Chief Prosecutor (ECP) of the embryonic European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) has challenged the 22 European Union (EU) states (1) that have signed up to an enhanced cooperation pact underpinning its existence to properly fund the new institution. Without enough money, the EPPO will not be effective, ECP Laura Codruţa Kövesi told Fraud Intelligence.…

Read more

ANNUAL EU CRIME REPORTS SHOW EUROPEAN INSTITUTIONS STILL FAILING TO CRUSH ENDEMIC FRAUD



THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) continues to struggle to clamp down on fraud within its revenue collection and spending programmes – making progress, but with major scams still emerging within the EU’s complex international decision-making systems.

In its latest annual ‘fight against fraud’ report (1) (2), covering 2019, the European Commission reports that 939 discovered irregularities were reported as fraudulent (8% of the number), involving EUR461.4 million in lost money (28% of that affected by irregularities).…

Read more

EU MEMBER STATES HAVE FAILED TO COMPLY WITH 5AMLD ON CREATING OPEN UBO REGISTERS



 

Only five European Union (EU) member states out of the current 27 have fully and properly complied with a requirement to set up public ultimate beneficial ownership (UBO) registers by January 10 (2020) under the fifth anti-money laundering directive (5AMLD), according to research by campaign group Global Witness.…

Read more

EU JUDGES RULING ON EU GEOGRAPHICAL INDICATIONS WILL PROMPT REVIEW OF PRODUCT NAMES BY SOME FOOD AND DRINK MANUFACTURERS



GEOGRAPHICAL indications can be controversial legal protections that some food manufacturers regard as being unjust restrictions on trade in quality food items that are inspired by traditional products.

Of course, for companies based in traditional production regions of goods such as Prosciutto ham and Irish whisky, they can be a Godsend – preventing illicit competition (as they see it) from banking on a reputation for taste that has been created by protected manufacturers in previous decades, even centuries.…

Read more