Facundo Leal, 42-year-old lawyer, former president of state company ARSAT (2022-2026) and former director of ORSNA appointed by the Milei administration in 2025, was detained for alleged money laundering and drug trafficking.
Ramón Gordils Montes, Venezuelan diplomat who held 28 positions since 1999, appears in Spanish judicial documents as intermediary between Venezuelan shareholders of Plus Ultra and the influence peddling network allegedly led by José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.
The Court of First Instance in Girona ordered provisional detention for 6 of 16 arrested in operation by the Civil Guard and Mossos d'Esquadra that dismantled drug trafficking and money laundering network in Barcelona/Catalonia and Granada. Four without bail, two with bail of €150,000 each.
The General Prosecutor's Office dismantled the criminal network 'Del Caballito' dedicated to money laundering and issuance of false tax receipts, arresting 8 people including the alleged leaders Michael 'N' and Salvador 'N'.
Nikenson Jean Mathurin, 46, of Sparta, New Jersey, was found guilty on May 21, 2026, of three counts of wire fraud and one count of money laundering.
Former Spanish president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has been charged with influence peddling, money laundering and document falsification in the case of the €53 million bailout to airline Plus Ultra in March 2021.
Judge Marcelo Aguinsky charged Luis Fernando Vuteff, Argentine financier, with money laundering of illicit sources conducted habitually and imposed an embargo of $5.1 million USD. Vuteff was convicted in the US (December 2024) to 30 months in prison for conspiracy to launder $1.
An indictment was unsealed charging Ruhuan Zhen and Hongce Wu, both Chinese nationals, with conspiracy to commit money laundering in connection with transnational criminal organizations, including the Sinaloa Cartel and the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generación.
The US Department of the Treasury sanctioned on May 22, 2026 Armando de Jesús Ojeda, leader of cryptocurrency money laundering network for the 'Los Chapitos' faction of the Sinaloa Cartel.
Qatar's Criminal Court sentenced a Qatari Ministry of Commerce employee and four Arab nationals to 4 years imprisonment for bribery, abuse of official authority, and money laundering involving 201,140 Qatari riyals in bribes for illegal commercial licenses.
Manavgat Mayor Niyazi Nefi Kara was convicted on May 15, 2026, of forming and managing a criminal organization, bribery, embezzlement (irtikap), misappropriation (zimmet), and money laundering. He received a total sentence of 46 years, 10 months, and 15 days imprisonment plus 2.
FINTRAC imposed an administrative monetary penalty of $693,742.50 on 13010431 Canada Inc., operating as Necosmart, a money services business in Edmonton, Alberta.
UAE Minister Abdulla bin Touq toured Dubai Gold Souq to meet with traders as part of enforcement efforts against illicit gold transactions linked to money laundering and terrorism financing. The initiative targets 'dirty gold' - precious metals with origins in illegal financial flows.
Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) published its 2026 update to the money laundering and terrorism financing risk assessment for legal persons and arrangements in May 2026, showing institutional growth to 12,302 entities (72% increase from March 2024) while risk profile remains largely stable.
FinCEN issued an alert (FIN-2026-Alert002) to help financial institutions identify and stop funding streams and procurement networks supporting Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
FINTRAC imposed an administrative monetary penalty of $42,075 on VersaBank, headquartered in London, Ontario, on February 23, 2026 for AML/CTF compliance violations.
A federal jury in Miami convicted former U.S. Congressman David Rivera and lobbyist Esther Nuhfer of violating the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA) by secretly advancing Venezuelan government interests without proper registration.
Operation Tri-Force Sentinel: Dubai Police collaborated with FBI and Chinese police to arrest 276 individuals, predominantly from Southeast Asian nations, and dismantle nine fraud centers.
Money laundering offences pursued by the Geneva Public Prosecutor surged 32% in 2025, marking the third consecutive year of increases. This increase comes as processing times for complex economic cases reach record levels, with approximately four years required to close a case without prosecution.
The ACPR Sanctions Commission issued a reprimand and a pecuniary sanction of €1.3 million to MoneyGram International SA on 19 March 2026.
MAS issued Prohibition Orders against Mr Wang Qiming (16-year prohibition) and Mr Liu Kai (7-year prohibition), former relationship managers convicted of charges connected to Singapore's major money laundering case of August 2023 involving S$3 billion ($2.3 billion) in illicit assets.
Bellingcat and The Sunday Times documented footage of Christy Kinahan (68) and Daniel Kinahan (48) at Dubai's 971 Fighting Championship in June 2025, marking their first confirmed sighting since US sanctions in April 2022.
Paraguayan senator Erico Galeano Segovia of the ruling Colorado Party was sentenced to 13 years in prison for money laundering and criminal association linked to fugitive Uruguayan drug trafficker Sebastián Marset.
Singapore Police and MAS jointly conducted enforcement operations against Capital Asia Investments Pte Ltd and its directors for suspected money laundering offences and failure to comply with AML obligations. Police seized more than S$160 million of assets in bank and securities accounts.
FINMA revoked MBaer Merchant Bank AG's license and ordered liquidation for serious, systematic AML and sanctions compliance failures. FINMA found that 80% of the bank's business relationships carried increased risks, and 98% of assets came from high-risk clients.
Kuwait dismantled an Arab gang in February 2026 specializing in electronic fraud, money laundering, and bank forgery. Total money laundered through their companies since 2023 exceeded 100 million Kuwaiti dinars (about 327 million dollars).
Financial Action Task Force (FATF) added Kuwait to its grey list of jurisdictions under increased monitoring in February 2026. Kuwait made a high-level political commitment to work with FATF and MENAFATF to strengthen effectiveness of its AML/CFT regime.
The National Financial Prosecutor (PNF) opened on 6 February 2026 a preliminary investigation targeting Caroline Lang and her father Jack Lang for 'money laundering of aggravated tax fraud'.
A Dubai civil court ordered individuals and companies to jointly pay AED 3.903 million to two maritime trading companies in January 2026 after criminal convictions for money laundering and fraud.
The Luxembourg financial regulator CSSF fined Japanese-owned Rakuten Europe Bank €185,000 for breaches of AML rules. The CSSF said the bank showed long-standing weaknesses in its anti-money laundering controls.
Switzerland's financial regulator FINMA took action against Julius Baer amid heightened regulatory scrutiny, with confiscation orders to reclaim profits associated with anti-money laundering compliance violations spanning a decade.
ICIJ's Coin Laundry investigation revealed major cryptocurrency exchanges (Binance, OKX, Coinbase, Kraken, Bybit, Kucoin) moved billions in illicit funds.
Ukraine sanctioned businessman Timur Mindich, a close associate of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, amid a corruption probe into alleged kickbacks and money laundering at state-owned nuclear energy firm Energoatom.
BaFin imposed a record fine of €45 million on JP Morgan SE due to 'shortcomings in the company's money laundering prevention.' The fine represents BaFin's largest penalty for AML compliance failures and demonstrates Germany's increasingly strict enforcement posture on anti-money laundering controls.
Azerbaijani court sentenced Ramin Isayev, former general director of SOCAR AQS (a state oil firm joint venture), to 14 years in jail for embezzling $31.76 million. He was found guilty of embezzlement, money laundering, abuse of office, and fraud.
UAE Central Bank imposed a fine of 10.7 million dirhams on an exchange company for anti-money laundering violations in August 2025.
UAE Central Bank imposed fines totaling 4.1 million dirhams on 3 exchange companies for failing to comply with anti-money laundering regulations in July 2025.
Dubai's Criminal Court sentenced an Indian businessman 'Abu Sabah' and others to 5 years imprisonment, 500,000 dirhams fine, deportation, and confiscation of 150 million dirhams for money laundering through an organized criminal group.
Kuwait's Criminal Court sentenced 19 defendants to prison terms between 3 and 10 years, and fined them double the amounts obtained from money laundering crimes, in a case involving 29 individuals and 9 companies.
Robinhood Securities and Robinhood Financial agreed to pay $45 million ($33.5M and $11.5M respectively) in SEC fines for failing to timely file suspicious activity reports.
FATF noted that Kuwait has an appropriate legal and regulatory framework for combating money laundering and terrorism financing, but identified "serious deficiencies preventing effective results."