Money laundering

The First Deputy Assistant Secretary in the US Treasury - Paul Ahern, is visiting Sofia. He will be in the country by February 11th.

Ahern will meet with representatives of the Bulgarian government. The talks will focus on the cooperation in the area of combating money laundering and terrorist financing.

A US court in Brooklyn has jailed a former consulate worker and Kosovo Foreign Ministry staffer for nine years for his role in an elaborate money-laundering scheme that resulted in him buying and selling an anti-tank rocket launcher and rifles in Kosovo.

Just two months after receiving a 15-year prison sentence for his role in a bribery scandal concerning German giant Siemens, a former senior executive of the company's Greek branch was released from jail citing health reasons.

The Turkish financial crimes unit slammed a global money laundering watchdog report against the country's money laundering efforts.

"Turkey's struggles weren't revealed in the report. [Turkey] was subjected to unfair assessment," Turkey's Financial Crimes Investigation Board (MASAK) officials told Anadolu Agency on Dec. 19 on a recent report by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

Currently, the controlling bodies in the European Union detect only 1% of the proceeds from money laundering on the Old Continent, BNT reported.

Turkish authorities must address shortcomings in tackling money laundering and terrorism financing or face being added to a "grey list" of countries with inadequate financial controls, according to a global money laundering watchdog.

The performance and the reputation of the "Golden Visa" residence permit program in Greece are being tarnished by the presence of a number of companies that are of doubtful origin and solvency and have been active in the local market over the last couple of years despite lacking the necessary funds.

British police confirmed that they have identified the bodies of all 39 people who were found dead in a truck in Essex and have notified their families, Reuters reported.

"This is an important step in the investigation and enables us to work with our Vietnamese police colleagues to support the families of those victims." a senior officer in charge of the inquiry said.

The Dutch prosecutor's office is investigating ABN Amro on suspected breaches of anti-money laundering and terrorist financing legislation, Reuters and the Associated Press reported.

The bank said it would fully cooperate with the authorities. Its shares plummeted by more than 9 percent when the stock market opened in Amsterdam.

Drug trafficking in Greece in 2016 is estimated at 200 million euros, while the amount of taxes lost as a result of cigarette smuggling in the same year is put at 431.8 million euros, and illegal migrant trafficking is seen as having led to gains of 367 million euros for the smugglers.