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CROSS-BORDER POLICE COLLABORATION IS KEY TO CRACKING DOWN ON INTERNATIONAL DAIRY CRIME



Malaysia’s 1MDB scandal is one of the largest ever embezzlement and money laundering cases, with Malaysian courts considering how at least USD4.5 billion was stolen and then spent or laundered from Malaysian sovereign wealth fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB). Former Prime Minister Najib Razak has now been convicted of charges associated with the scandal.…

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ALUMINIUM CAN DEMAND SOARS DURING COVID-19, LEAVING CAN MAKERS EXPANDING CAPACITY TO DELIVER SUPPLY



UNPRECEDENTED demand for aluminium cans caused by consumers drinking at home during lockdowns and associated restaurant and café closures due to the Covid-19 pandemic, will not cause long term disruption to this key canning market, say industry experts. Instead, manufacturers will work closely with customers to maintain supplies, European and United States (US) industry organisations have told CanTech International.…

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TACKLING RISING DIGITAL IDENTITY FRAUD IN THE PANDEMIC ERA



With the fall out from the Covid-19 pandemic set to prompt an increase in already staggeringly high levels of digital identity fraud, financial institutions and businesses should develop more sophisticated tools to tackle the issue, researchers have warned. The fact the disease has hit when open banking applications are proliferating means fraudsters have more portals to target “particularly through identity fraud” attacks, suggests a July (2020) report from financial platform Finextra in collaboration with software providers Feedzai, headquartered in Portugal (https://www.finextra.com/finextra-downloads/research/documents/148/how-to-prevent-payments-fraud-amid-global-disruption.pdf).…

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FORMER PRIME MINISTER CONVICTED OVER MALAYSIA’S USD4.5 BILLION 1MDB FRAUD



Former Malaysian Prime Minister, Najib Razak, was convicted in Kuala Lumpur High Court on Tuesday (July 28) of seven charges linked to his role in the embezzlement of USD4.5 billion from the 1 Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) government investment fund. The scandal, which helped defeat the Najib government in a 2018 general election, saw funds siphoned off, including around USD1 billion to the Prime Minister’s personal bank accounts.…

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PRICE VARIATIONS IN TOBACCO TRADES COULD MASK DIRTY MONEY FLOWS, COMMERCIAL DATABASE WARNS



THE INTERNATIONAL trade in tobacco products and inputs contains significant variations in prices that might indicate the presence of trade-based money laundering – of TBML – a specialist database indicates. Certain trade flows are exploited by money launderers seeking to move criminal proceeds from one country to another through artificial pricing – deliberate over- and under- invoicing.…

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SYRIAN TOBACCO SECTOR HIT HARD BY CIVIL WAR, BUT STILL SURVIVES, WITH LEAF PRODUCTION POTENTIALLY EXPANDING



The Syrian tobacco sector has been hard hit by the civil war and associated social conflicts, now stretching into their tenth year. Tobacco leaf volumes and planted areas have dropped by around a third since the start of these troubles, factories have been destroyed, and sanctions have forced international brands from formal trading channels in Syria.…

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NOVARTIS AND SUBSIDIARIES HIT BY MAJOR US FINES OVER CORRUPTION



Swiss pharmaceuticals giant, Novartis AG, plus a former subsidiary Alcon Pte and its current Greek wing, are together to pay out USD345.9 million in fines to American regulators because of corrupt practices. The penalties follow admissions that staff bribed public and private healthcare providers in Greece and Vietnam to choose Novartis products in breach of the United States Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).…

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ARGENTINA VALUES DIGITAL TEXTILE PRINTERS – BUT TEXTILE FINISHERS STRUGGLE TO AFFORD THEM DURING STEEP RECESSION



While Argentina’s textile industry is poised for growth over the next few years, the expansion of its use of digital printing will probably lag as companies recover from a deep recession in 2020 caused by Covid-19 and underlying economic weakness, executives said. …

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NEW FATF PRESIDENT WANTS TO EXPAND ORGANISATION’S ENVIRONMENTAL CRIME SCOPE WHILE BEEFING UP ITS AML FINTECH ADVICE



THE NEW president of FATF, who took office on July 1, is planning to expand the global AML’s current focus on wildlife trade offences to other environmental crime, such as illegal logging, slash-and-burn cultivation and unlawful waste disposal.

Speaking to the MLB on July 2 in his first media interview after taking on this new role, Dr Marcus Pleyer, from Germany, stressed that the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has said illicit proceeds from environmental crime could total USD259 billion annually worldwide.…

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EGMONT GROUP SHARPENS ITS TECHNOLOGICAL EDGE AS IT EXPANDS COLLABORATION BETWEEN FIUS AND EXTERNAL CRIME FIGHTERS



THE EGMONT Group, the international network of financial intelligence units (FIU), is focusing on improving how its central resources and members use and interact with new technology. Interim Egmont Group chair, Hennie Verbeek-Kusters, told MLB that the group is reviewing its IT systems, of critical importance regarding the safe and encrypted exchange between its 164 member FIUs (there were 22,538 such exchanges in 2017, the most recent available data).…

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