May News from Themis
Hello from Sandeep Sroa BA.Hons l (Dip.AML) , Head of Business Development MENA. We are closing our May roadshow in quite the fashion. We conduct these roadshows, every 8-10 weeks, and they normally last anywhere between 10-15 days. We have some of our UK colleagues join us in our UAE offices, and we spend a few weeks before arranging meetings and events across different industries.?
During our May Roadshow, we kicked off by exhibiting and networking at the Dubai Fintech Summit (May 8-9th), we provided live demos of our state-of-the-art digital platform, and enabled our audience to see the future of entity screening, ongoing monitoring and investigative due diligence.?
On the 16th May, in collaboration with Hub71 , we hosted for Founders Focus “Too Good to be True? Why You Need to Vet Your Investors, Suppliers and 3rd Parties”. This was an informal event with our CEO Dickon Johnstone about why start-up founders or investors can’t afford to skip due diligence. Our Senior Investigations Analyst, and myself as our Head of Business Development MENA, shared some insights and case studies of how it can all go wrong.?
This was followed up with our last event with Foreign Exchange & Remittance Group (FERG) , I was part of a panel where we spoke about the Compliance Culture, Technological Advancements and Compliance Frameworks. We had a very successful event, with huge amounts of follow ups. We left with a nice big gold award for our efforts and thought leadership in the event.?
It’s been a super exciting few weeks for the Themis MENA team and we’re now busy following up on all the conversations we’ve had and demos we’ve done! This region has unbelievable scope, and we have only just started. The future for MENA is exciting and we are proud to be a recognised player in the market.
If you want to know or hear more about our state-of-the-art digital platform - drop me a message!
Lebanese art collector and accused financier of Hezbollah, Nazem Ahmad, was charged, alongside eight others, with money laundering and conspiring to defraud American and international governments. As part of the actions, over 50 individuals and entities in 9 countries connected to Ahmad were sanctioned. The US Treasury Department issued a statement highlighting Ahmad’s vast and valuable art collection which they suggested he had built in order to avoid sanctions.?
ILLEGAL WILDLIFE TRADE: Dark web wildlife trade investigated by Adelaide research team
A team of researchers at the University of Adelaide identified more than 150 species being traded across 50 dark web marketplaces. Many of the advertisements were for flora that were marketed for their use as drugs, though animals, including the Colorado River toad, were also being sold for their psychedelic properties. Their findings raise concerns about threats to biodiversity and biosecurity transnationally.
Since the start of the national referral mechanism in 2009, the number of possible victims of modern slavery is at its record level. Between January and March of this year, 4,476 people were referred as possible victims, an increase of over 25% compared to the same period in 2022.
A trio of criminals were sentenced to a combined 17 years’ imprisonment for their involvement in a passport fraud scheme, as illustrated in the accompanying risk map. The group exploited vulnerable individuals for their passports which were then sold to convicts, including murderers and drug dealers, allowing them to live luxury lifestyles whilst on the run for over a decade. The investigation revealed 50 fake identities that had been sold to fugitives, enabling them to evade identification and arrest by both local and international law enforcement.?
MONEY LAUNDERING: Property register fines worth ￡1bn not yet imposed
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As much as ￡1 billion in fines has not been imposed on unregistered companies in the UK. Registration requirements of overseas firms that own UK property were? introduced as part of the Economic Crime Act in 2022, though the January 31st deadline has come and gone and penalties have yet to be issued.?
Upcoming Events
Open investigations into murky payments have renewed concerns about what some see as the football industry’s incapacity to rid itself of a reputation mired by corruption and financial crime globally. Join us on the 13th of June as we sit down with football and financial crime experts for our latest investigative briefing that will take a critical look at the links the football industry has had at all levels with financial crime and the crucial role tech can play for businesses in managing these vulnerabilities. Register here.
Past Events
4th May - UAE Country Risk Workshop with Jersey Finance
As part of our ongoing partnership with Jersey Finance , we were back in Jersey for our second country risk assessment workshop, this time focused on the UAE. It was a great opportunity to engage with professionals from across Jersey’s financial services industry and keep an eye out as we will be back in June for our next workshop!
11th May - ICA Future of FinCrime & Compliance
A non-stop month continued as our Head of Investigations, Henry W. , spoke at the ICA FutureFinCrime and Compliance conference about the latest trends and best practices in tackling the illegal wildlife trade.
The second instalment of our ambitious national rollout campaign of the UK Modern Slavery Digital Learning took place (online) in Wales this month. We had an exceptional line-up of speakers and were joined by more than 40 individuals from across the financial, government, and law enforcement sectors, putting us closer to our aim of equipping the over 70,000 financial institutions across the UK with the information and resources needed to combat modern slavery.?
This month marked the beginning of our 50 million steps challenge to raise ￡50,000 for the 50 million victims of modern slavery globally. We have until Anti-Slavery Day (October 18) to achieve both of these goals and have already walked over 6 million steps and raised ￡1.1k! Please consider supporting the initiative here.