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The Federal Reserve Board has announced the 22 members of its Fraud Definitions Work Group, part of an initiative to advance the Federal Reserve's strategy for improving the U.S. payment system. The group members will work collaboratively with Federal Reserve leaders to formulate recommendations for improving the quality and consistency of ACH, wire, and check fraud data.

OFAC has posted an announcement that it is replacing its List of Foreign Financial Institutions Subject to Part 561 with the List of Foreign Financial Institutions Subject to Correspondent Account or Payable-Through Account Sanctions (the “CAPTA List”).

The CAPTA List contains identifying information of foreign financial institutions for which the opening or maintaining of a correspondent account or a payable-through account in the United States is prohibited or is subject to one or more strict conditions. The specific strict conditions or prohibitions to which the foreign financial institutions are subject include the Ukraine Freedom Support Act of 2014, as amended by the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), the North Korea Sanctions Regulations, 31 C.F.R. part 510, the Iranian Financial Sanctions Regulations, 31 C.F.R. Part 561, which were identified on OFAC's now defunct Part 561 List, and the Hizballah International Financing Prevention Act of 2015, which would be identified on the Hizballah Financial Sanctions Regulations List (the “HFSR List”).

The CAPTA List is not part of the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) List. Information that appears on the CAPTA list will be included in the data formats associated with the Consolidated Sanctions List.

The FDIC as Receiver for Colonial Bank (FDIC) has announced a $335 million settlement with PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC) related to professional negligence claims brought by the FDIC against PwC arising out of the audits of Colonial Bank, Montgomery, Alabama, which failed on August 14, 2009, with $25.5 billion in assets and a loss to the Deposit Insurance Fund estimated at $2.958 billion as of December 31, 2017.

FDIC Board member Martin Gruenberg filed a statement on his dissent from the settlement, because it did not include a written statement of liability by PwC.

OCC Bulletin 2019-13, issued Friday, announced the update of the “Recovery Planning” booklet of the Comptroller’s Handbook. The booklet explains effective recovery planning under 12 CFR 30, appendix E, “OCC Guidelines Establishing Standards for Recovery Planning by Certain Large Insured National Banks, Insured Federal Savings Associations, and Insured Federal Branches.” This updated booklet replaces a similarly titled booklet issued in April 2018.

On Friday, OFAC designated six Russian individuals and eight entities in response to Russia’s continued and ongoing aggression in Ukraine. This action targets individuals and entities playing a role in Russia’s unjustified attacks on Ukrainian naval vessels in the Kerch Strait, the purported annexation of Crimea, and backing of illegitimate separatist government elections in eastern Ukraine. These actions complement sanctions also taken by the European Union and Canada. For identification of the individuals and entities designated on Friday, see our OFAC Update.

The OCC has issued its Alert 2019-2 concerning counterfeit cashier's checks in circulation purporting to have been issued by the First National Bank of Elmer, Elmer, New Jersey, in connection with an online job opportunity overpayment scam. For additional information, see our Alerts and Counterfeits page.

The Federal Reserve Board has announced it has prohibited Tim Leissner and Ng Chong Hwa (a/k/a Roger Ng) -- both former senior investment bankers employed by foreign subsidiaries of The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. -- from the banking industry for their participation in a scheme to illegally divert billions of dollars from a Malaysian sovereign wealth fund. Leissner was also fined $1.42 million and consented to the permanent ban.

Leissner and Ng coordinated bond offerings arranged by Goldman for 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) in 2012 and 2013. The funds diverted from 1MDB were then used for Leissner's and Ng's personal benefit and to bribe certain government officials in Malaysia and Abu Dhabi. In August 2018, Leissner pleaded guilty to criminal charges brought by the Department of Justice in the Eastern District of New York for conspiring to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and to commit money laundering. In that plea agreement, Leissner agreed to forfeit $43.7 million. Ng was indicted in October 2018 on similar charges.

The Federal Trade Commission has reported that it will be mailing 12,072 refund checks totaling more than $644,000 to people who lost money to a get-rich-quick scheme that falsely claimed they could earn significant money working online by using products marketed as “secret codes” by the operators of the Mobile Money Code scheme.

The Treasury Department has announced that OFAC has designated Evrofinance Mosnarbank, a Moscow-based bank that is jointly owned by Russian and Venezuelan state-owned companies. Monday’s action, taken pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13850, targets a foreign financial institution that has materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological support for, or goods or services to or in support of, Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. (PdVSA), which is itself an entity that has long been a vehicle for corruption, embezzlement, and money laundering by former Venezuelan President Maduro and his cronies. PdVSA, which was designated for operating in the oil sector of Venezuela on January 28, 2019, is a Venezuelan state-owned oil company. For identity information on the bank, see our OFAC Update.

OFAC has posted a notice that it has issued Venezuela-related General Licenses 3D (“Authorizing Transactions Related to, Provisions of Financing for, and Other Dealings in Certain Bonds") and 9C (“Authorizing Transactions Related to Dealings in Certain Securities"). FAQs 661 and 662 were also updated.