Financial Crimes, Compliance and COVID-19

Illicit actors exploiting the vulnerabilities of global economic strains and interrupted supply chains caused by the COVID-19 pandemic have, effectively, created a perfect storm of fraudulent schemes and money laundering. “The World Bank (WB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) have estimated the volume of money laundering to be between 3 to 5 percent of global gross domestic product (GDP), equivalent to approximately US$2.2 trillion to US$3.7 trillion annually.” At present, the entire anti-money laundering (AML) community is adapting to the real-time roll out of “new Federal, State, local, and foreign government initiatives to combat the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic consequences.” With quarantine, social-distancing,…...