The Case Western Reserve University School of Law is introducing an Executive Master of Arts in Financial Integrity (MAFI) program, which will begin in the fall of 2016.  The program was created in response to demands by financial institutions and government agencies for superior compliance experts in the areas of countering money laundering, the financing of terrorism, and the evasion of financial sanctions.

On February 3, Representatives Carolyn B. Maloney (D-NY-12) and Peter King (R-NY-2) reintroduced their legislation in the House of Representatives to make it obligatory for a corporation to disclose its beneficial owner.  This action follows the activist organization Global Witness' publication last week of a groundbreaking investigation that demonstrated that disclosure laws in the United States are easily manipulated and exploited.

The activist organization Global Witness released a report on January 31st that stated that three New York real estate lawyers had been recorded giving advice on how to move suspect money into the United States. Global Witness' report is the product of an undercover investigation that this nonprofit organization carried out as part of its push for stricter money-laundering rules. According to Global Witness spokeswoman Stefanie Ostfeld, it "...wasn't hard to find lawyers to suggest ways to move suspect funds into the United States".

Ethan Couch, the Texan teenager who used an "affluenza" defense in a drunk-driving crash that killed four people, is currently being held in a juvenile detention center in Texas.  Couch was arrested on December 28 after he and his mother fled to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico in an attempt to avoid the consequences of violating the terms of his probation.  These terms do not allow him to consume alcohol or to leave the United States.

Bruce Zagaris has co-authored  Business Ethics: A Guide to Surviving Storms, Challenges, and Ethical Risks. 

The publisher is now accepting pre-orders.

By Adriana Sanford, Bruce Zagaris, Brad Holcomb, Wilfried Grommen

Published by Pearson Custom Publishing

Copyright © 2016

U.S. and Cuba Swap Alleged Spies, Agree to Remove Economic Sanctions, and Normalize Relations

By Bruce Zagaris

On December 17, 2014, the United States and Cuba exchanged prisoners and agreed to normalize relations, demonstrating how international enforcement cooperation remains in the forefront of the thaw in relations.

Bruce Zagaris has written a 119-page reporting, entitled “International Asset Forfeiture:Recovering Proceeds from Illegal Elephant Poaching.The report was done funded by and prepared for the Richardson Center for Global Engagement.This report examines the money laundering prosecution and international asset recovery policies, laws, regulations and practice of five countries with respect to elephant poaching and ivory trafficking. 

An Interpol Incident Response Team (IRT) was deployed to Kenya at the request of Kenyan authorities. Following the Westgate shopping center terror attack, the IRT will carry out an on-site investigation of the DNA, fingerprints, and other evidence from the crime scene.

The IRT arrived in Nairobi on September 25, 2013 and will help speed up the dissemination of forensic information and photographs of the suspected terrorists to the 190 countries in the INTERPOL network to identify any potential leads.

On May 10, 2013, the Africa Progress Panel, chaired by former Secretary-General of the United Nations Kofi Annan, released its annual progress report. This year's report highlights the critical choices African policy makers have to make regarding investment in the immense natural resources on the continent. In many African countries, natural resource revenue is increasing the economic gap between the wealth and the poor and the economic growth from these revenues have not translated into improvements in health and education throughout Africa.

On April 9, 2013, the Finance Ministers of the U.K., France, Germany, Italy and Spain notified the EU Tax Commissioner Algirdas Šemeta that they have agreed to work on a pilot multilateral exchange facility between their countries using the model FATCA intergovernmental agreement with the U.S.