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The Treasury Department has reported that OFAC has sanctioned Cambodian businessman Ly Yong Phat, his conglomerate L.Y.P. Group Co., and O‑Smach Resort for their role in serious human rights abuse related to the treatment of trafficked workers subjected to forced labor in online scam centers. OFAC also designated Cambodia-based Garden City Hotel, Koh Kong Resort, and Phnom Penh Hotel for being owned or controlled by Ly.

Treasury also announced that OFAC has designated 16 Maduro-aligned officials who obstructed a competitive and inclusive presidential election process in Venezuela and violated the civil and human rights of the people. The individuals sanctioned under the authority of Executive Order 13692 include leaders of the Maduro-aligned National Electoral Council and the Supreme Tribunal of Justice who impeded a transparent electoral process and the release of accurate election results, as well as the military, intelligence, and government officials responsible for intensifying repression through intimidation, indiscriminate detentions, and censorship.

For a link to the names and identification information of the designated parties, see yesterday's BankersOnline OFAC Update, which also includes information on a new Global Magnitsky General License and new and amended FAQs.

The Treasury Department on Wednesday announced that OFAC has sanctioned three individuals, five companies, and two vessels that are involved in smuggling oil and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) to generate revenue for Hizballah.

For identification information on the individuals, entities, and vessels designated by OFAC, and other OFAC actions yesterday, see yesterday's BankersOnline OFAC Update.

The Treasury Department yesterday announced that OFAC has sanctioned nine Mexican nationals and 26 Mexico-based entities linked to a fuel theft network that generates tens of millions of dollars benefiting the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG), a violent Mexico-based drug trafficking organization responsible for a significant proportion of fentanyl and other deadly drugs trafficked into the United States. Mexico-based drug trafficking cartels such as CJNG have turned to fuel theft in recent years, resulting in billions of dollars in lost revenue to the Mexican government. Today’s action was coordinated closely with the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Government of Mexico, including La Unidad de Inteligencia Financiera (UIF), Mexico’s Financial Intelligence Unit.

OFAC also designated ten individuals and six entities based in Iran and Russia and identified four vessels as blocked property that are enabling Iran’s delivery of weapons components and weapons systems, including unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and close-range ballistic missiles (CRBMs), to Russia.

For identification information on the individuals, entities, and vessels designated or identified yesterday, see BankersOnline’s September 10, 2024, OFAC Update.

FinCEN has updated its Beneficial Ownership Information FAQs webpage, adding Reporting Company questions C.15 and C.16, and updating Reporting Company question C.14 and Initial Report question G.4.

FinCEN on Monday released a Financial Trend Analysis on mail theft-related check fraud incidents based on Bank Secrecy Act data filed in the six months following FinCEN’s issuance of its 2023 alert on this same topic. During the review period, FinCEN received 15,417 BSA reports from 841 financial institutions on mail theft-related check fraud, amounting to more than $688 million in reported suspicious activity (the average amount reported was $44,774 per reported incident).

FinCEN identified three primary outcomes after checks were stolen from the U.S. Mail:

• 44 percent were altered and then deposited
• 26 percent were used as templates to create counterfeit checks
• 20 percent were fraudulently signed [indorsed] and deposited

Check manipulation methodologies ranged in sophistication, and many perpetrators tried to avoid interaction with bank personnel. FinCEN also found that banks filed 88 percent of all mail theft-related check fraud reports. Additionally, analysis revealed that financial institutions reported transactional activity or BSA filing subjects linked to every U.S. state, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. While every state was affected, populous states with large urban areas had more reported incidents.

Mail theft-related check fraud losses can affect personal savings, checking accounts, business accounts, and retirement savings, as well as negatively impact financial institutions that typically cover the check fraud losses.

The Treasury Department yesterday announced that OFAC has designated 10 individuals and two entities as part of a coordinated U.S. government response to Moscow’s malign influence efforts targeting the 2024 U.S. presidential election. Beginning in early 2024, executives at RT—Russia’s state-funded news media outlet—began a nefarious effort to covertly recruit unwitting American influencers in support of their malign influence campaign. RT used a front company to disguise its own involvement or the involvement of the Russian government in content meant to influence U.S. audiences.

Yesterday’s designations complement law enforcement actions taken by the Department of Justice and the Department of State’s designation of the Rossiya Segodnya media group and five of its subsidiaries, RIA Novosti, RT, TV-Novosti, Ruptly, and Sputnik, as Foreign Missions, steps to impose visa restrictions, and release of a Rewards for Justice (RFJ) reward offer of up to $10 million relating to information pertaining to foreign interference in a U.S. election.

For the names and identification information of the designated parties, and information on related OFAC actions, see this September 4, 2024, BankersOnline OFAC Update.

The Federal Reserve Board has announced it has issued enforcement actions against two banks.

• First Interstate Bank, Billings, Montana, was assessed a $70,000 civil money penalty for a pattern or practice of violations of Regulation H, 12 C.F.R. § 208.25, which implements the requirements of the National Flood Insurance Act.
• United Texas Bank, Dallas, Texas, received a consent cease and desist order issued jointly by the Federal Reserve Board and the Texas Department of Banking after a May 2023 examination identified deficiencies in its BSA/AML compliance program.
  

The Federal Trade Commission reports that new data show a massive increase in the amount of money consumers report losing to scammers involving Bitcoin ATM machines. Since 2020, the amount consumers reported losing has increased nearly tenfold to over $110 million in 2023.

In a newly released data spotlight, the FTC says that fraud losses to Bitcoin ATMs have topped $65 million in just the first six months of 2024. During this timeframe, consumers over the age of 60 were more than three times as likely as younger adults to report losing money to Bitcoin ATM scams. Across all ages, the median loss reported in the first half of this year was a staggering $10,000.

The majority of scam losses involving Bitcoin ATMs come as a result of government impersonation, business impersonation, and tech support scams. The lies told by scammers vary, but they all create some urgent justification for consumers to take cash out of their bank accounts and put it into a Bitcoin ATM. As soon as consumers scan a QR code provided by scammers at the machine, their cash is deposited straight into the scammers’ crypto account.

The NCUA has reported it has permanently prohibited Luz Araceli Davila-Hernandez, a former employee of Magnifi Financial Credit Union, Melrose, Minnesota, from ever working for a federally insured depository institution.

The FDIC has released a list of enforcement orders issued in July 2024.

• A Consent Order against The State Exchange Bank, Lamont, Oklahoma
• A Consent Order against Chesterfield State Bank, Chesterfield, Illinois
• Prohibition orders against:
  • Raqeel Rashida Alsalam, formerly affiliated with First-Citizens Bank & Trust Company, Raleigh, North Carolina
  • Brent D. Torgerson, formerly affiliated with The Union Bank, Beulah, North Dakota
  • Samuel Ortiz-Perez, formerly affiliated with FirstBank Puerto Rico, Santurce, Puerto Rico
  • Leann Athas, formerly affiliated with Bank of Montana, Missoula, Montana