Money laundering news | Clean on Paper

# August 28, 2026

US moves to cut off Banque Misr's UAE branches as a money laundering concern

The US Treasury’s FinCEN issued a proposed rule to designate the United Arab Emirates branches of Banque Misr, an Egyptian state-owned bank, as a primary money laundering concern under Section 311, which would cut them off from US correspondent banking. Treasury said the six UAE branches processed roughly $1.8 billion between January 2024 and June 2026 for 103 companies suspected of belonging to Iranian shadow-banking networks, and called the branches a critical node for Iran’s access to US dollars.

The action is part of a broader push to isolate Iran economically, announced alongside sanctions on an Iranian bank manager in Dubai and a Hong Kong front company accused of laundering for an Iranian exchange house. Section 311 designations are among the most severe tools in the AML arsenal: rather than fining a bank, they threaten to sever it from the dollar system entirely, the same mechanism used against Lebanese Canadian Bank in 2011 and Huione Group in 2025. How reporting and correspondent-bank controls feed actions like this is covered in how detection works.

Sources

Treasury moves to sanction UAE branch of Egyptian bank over Iran ties (CNBC, August 28, 2026).
Treasury announces new sanctions on Egyptian bank's UAE branch (The Washington Times, August 28, 2026).

# August 27, 2026

Grain trading firm forfeits $5.2 million in UK laundering and sanctions probe

ENEX Premium Trading Limited, an agricultural trading company registered in St Kitts and Nevis and owned by Azerbaijani national Nadir Valiyev, agreed to forfeit more than $5.2 million (about £3.84 million) to settle a UK National Crime Agency civil recovery investigation into suspected money laundering and sanctions evasion. Reporting in 2024 alleged that Valiyev’s companies had been involved in shipping stolen Ukrainian grain, and the NCA froze the money with an Account Freezing Order that November. Investigators traced the funds to ENEX accounts in China that took in tens of millions of pounds from suspected front companies between July and September 2024, part of a network that moved money through UK electronic money institutions to be converted into cryptocurrency. Some of the companies that paid ENEX were later sanctioned by the United States for helping sell illicit Iranian oil.

The settlement involves no admission of unlawful conduct, and Valiyev denies any criminal activity. The case shows why investigators treat opaque offshore trading firms as a warning sign: layers of front companies can make suspect commodity revenue look like ordinary trade. Read how the corporate layer works in shell companies.

Sources

Millions forfeited by company linked to suspected money laundering and sanctions evasion (National Crime Agency, August 27, 2026).
UK: National Crime Agency agrees forfeiture of $5.2m to resolve sanctions and AML investigation (Duane Morris LLP, August 27, 2026).

# August 26, 2026

Tornado Cash retrial of Roman Storm pushed to April 2027

The retrial of Tornado Cash co-founder Roman Storm has been pushed back to April 26, 2027, with a final pretrial conference set for April 20, 2027, in New York. Prosecutors had originally sought an October 2026 date for retrying the two counts his August 2025 jury could not resolve: conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to violate sanctions, which together carry roughly 40 years of maximum exposure.

Storm was convicted in August 2025 only of conspiring to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business. He has not been sentenced on that count, and his motion for acquittal, argued in April 2026, remains undecided. The case is the central test of whether writing and deploying mixer code can support criminal liability, and its outcome will shape enforcement against privacy tools for years. Background on how mixers work and the full Tornado Cash saga is on the mixers, tumblers, and CoinJoin page.

Sources

Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm's retrial pushed to April 2027 (The Block, August 26, 2026).
US requests October retrial for Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm (CoinDesk, March 10, 2026).

# August 11, 2026

FinCEN makes the domestic ownership-reporting exemption permanent

FinCEN issued a final rule on August 11, 2026, effective August 14, that permanently adopts the framework it introduced by interim rule in March 2025: US-formed companies and US persons are exempt from beneficial-ownership reporting under the Corporate Transparency Act. Only foreign-formed companies registered to do business in the United States must file, and even they need not report US persons as beneficial owners.

The practical effect is that the US, which enacted the CTA in 2021 to end anonymous domestic shell companies, now collects ownership data on only a thin slice of entities. A Supreme Court petition on the statute’s constitutionality remains pending for the fall 2026 term. Why ownership registers matter to investigators, and how the US position now compares with the UK and Canada, is covered on the shell companies and nominees page.

Sources

Treasury press release on the final beneficial-ownership reporting rule (US Department of the Treasury, August 2026).
Beneficial Ownership Information reporting (FinCEN, accessed August 2026).

# August 3, 2026

UBS pays a record $125 million FinCEN penalty for broker-dealer AML failures

FinCEN assessed a $125 million civil penalty against UBS Financial Services on August 3, 2026, the largest it has ever imposed on a broker-dealer for Bank Secrecy Act violations. Between January 2019 and June 2023, the firm failed to monitor more than 50,000 foreign currency wires worth over $10 billion combined, ran inadequate due diligence on high-risk customers with ties to Russia and Latin America, and filed hundreds of suspicious activity reports late.

FinCEN called the conduct recidivist: UBS Financial Services had already paid a $14.5 million penalty in December 2018 for similar program failures. The case extends a pattern seen in banking enforcement, where the penalty that finally lands is for broken controls and missing reports rather than for any single laundering scheme. What those reports are supposed to catch, and why late filings matter, is explained in reporting: CTRs, SARs, and STRs.

Sources

FinCEN Assesses Historic $125 Million Penalty Against UBS Financial Services Inc. for Recidivist BSA Violations (FinCEN, August 3, 2026).
UBS fined record $125 million for money laundering violations (Yahoo Finance, August 2026).

# June 25, 2026

US seizes Huione infrastructure and moves to add H-Pay to the ban

The campaign against Cambodia’s Huione Group, the marketplace at the center of the pig-butchering scam economy, escalated in late June 2026. On June 23 the Justice Department announced the seizure of backend infrastructure used by Huione’s money-laundering services. Two days later FinCEN published a proposed rule to amend its Section 311 special measure, which has severed Huione from US correspondent banking since November 2025, so that it also covers H-Pay Service PLC and any defined successor entity.

The successor-entity concept is the notable move. Laundering marketplaces respond to bans by rebranding, as Garantex did by re-emerging as Grinex after its 2025 takedown, and the proposed rule is designed to make the designation follow the business rather than the name. How guarantee marketplaces and dollar stablecoins move scam proceeds is covered on the stablecoins and OTC brokers page.

Sources

Definition of Huione Group, a Financial Institution Operating Outside the United States, of Primary Money Laundering Concern (NPRM) (Federal Register / FinCEN, June 25, 2026).
Imposition of Special Measure Regarding Huione Group (final rule) (FinCEN, October 2025).