Weekly Round-Up, 7 – 11 March – 22

In the “Weekly Round-Up” we summarise and give extra reading suggestions for some of the past weeks financial crime news headlines, powered by Acuminor’s crime universe ThreatView®.

This week, the Round-up is also focused on the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. As I said in my previous Round-Up, things are changing hourly. This week has contained a lot of updates on the ground situation, equally on the responses to the conflict. The articles below are a small subset of all information we have ingested related to the Ukraine conflict. 

To start, the EU has agreed on extending the scope of sanctions on Russia and Belarus, which will, among other sanctions, introduce SWIFT sanctions for Belarus. 

EU Commission – Ukraine: EU agrees to extend the scope of sanctions on Russia and Belarus

The European Parliament has also moved forward with a demand for a ban on golden passports and specific rules for golden visas. 

European Parliament – MEPs demand a ban on ‘golden passports’ and specific rules for ‘golden visas’

The UK announced that they introduce sanctions against seven Oligarchs. 

Gov.uk – Abramovich and Deripaska among 7 oligarchs targeted in estimated £15 billion sanction hit

Also, from the UK, The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation has written a guiding document to support the actions on implementing the sanctions and what to think about. 

Gov.uk The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation – The Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation 

Moving over to the Cyber arena. Google’s Threat Analysis Group (TAG) has released an update on Russia’s growing threat from cyber threat actors and ongoing cybercrime/warfare campaigns. 

Google Threat Analysis group – An update on the threat landscape

To help detect sanction evading technicians using Cryptocurrencies, the cryptoanalysis firm Chainalysis informs that they will release a free sanctions screening tool. 

Chainalysis – History Has Its Eyes on Crypto. Let’s Prove It’s on the Right Side.

As I also stated in the last Round-Up, Russia will likely respond to the sanctions imposed on them, and they have. Russia is imposing export bans on several products until the end of 2022.  

BBC News – Russia hits back at Western sanctions with export bans

War always affects the civilian population in terrible ways. Right now, there are 2.5 million people that have fled Ukraine. Some organised crime groups see this as an opportunity and turn to human trafficking. The German law enforcement now warns on the threat from human traffickers. 

DW – German police warn Ukraine refugees of human traffickers

The International Organization for Migration has dedicated a site on their response to the crisis where one also can donate to the humanitarian efforts. 

International Organization for Migration  UKRAINE: IOM RESPONSE 2022