Category: People
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New Boss For The Much Criticized German FIU!
The Swiss national Daniel Thelesklaf will become the new boss at the German Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) at the beginning of July 2023. A lawyer by profession, he has decades of experience in combating financial crime. He currently works at the United Nations as project manager of the Finance against Slavery and Human Trafficking (FAST) initiative. German Finance Minister Christian Lindner said Thelesklaf should push ahead with the reforms of the FIU that have already begun.
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Maltese Networks! MFSA Report Clears General Counsel Edwina Licari!
In October 2020, the Malta Financial Services Authority’s (MFSA) Board of Governors commissioned a review to carry out necessary verifications about a possible breach of ethics by former CEO Joseph Cuschieri and General Counsel Edwina Licari. The report, issued in Nov 2022, concludes that Licari need not face such charges. However, the report also implies problematic conduct during her time as MGA executive and sheds light on the Maltese way of doing supervision.
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Ralph Hamers UBS Resignation May Or May Not Be Related To Ongoing Dutch Investigations And The Payvision Disaster!
As reported by FinTelegram, the former ING CEO Ralph Hamers will step down from his job as CEO of Switzerland's UBS Group at the beginning of April 2023 after nearly 29 months on the job. He will be replaced by a predecessor Sergio P. Ermotti. This surprising move may be related to the acquisition of Credit Suisse, or it may be related to ongoing investigations into money laundering in Holland. It has not yet been decided whether charges will be brought against Hamers.
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Breaking: UBS CEO Ralph Hamers Replaced By His Predecessor Sergio P. Ermotti!
The UBS Board appointed Sergio P. Ermotti as Chief Executive Officer after its planned acquisition of Credit Suisse. Ralph Hamers agreed to step down but will remain at UBS as an advisor during a transition period to ensure a successful closure of the transaction and a smooth handover. Hamers was the highest-paid banker in Europe in 2022 but was also controversial. He is responsible for ING's disastrous acquisition of Payvision and is involved in money laundering investigations.
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Why The U.S. Regulator CFTC Goes After Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao!
According to the U.S. CFTC, Binance operates the world’s largest centralized digital asset exchange through an opaque web of corporate entities, all ultimately controlled by Changpeng Zhao (CZ). Much of Binance’s reported trading volume and profitability has come from its extensive solicitation of and access to customers in the United States. Allegedly. CZ was responsible for the circumvention of Binance's compliance approach. Not sued, however, is Binance.US, which is owned by BAM Trading Services Inc.
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UK FCA Strengthens Enforcement Team With New Executives To Fight Financial Crime!
The UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has appointed Therese Chambers and Steve Smart as joint Executive Directors of Enforcement and Market Oversight. The appointments reflect the regulator's commitment to fighting financial crime. Steve Smart joins from the National Crime Agency, where he sits on the Executive Committee as Director of Intelligence. Therese Chambers has worked at the FCA for over 20 years. She was the Director of Retail and Regulatory Investigations.
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The U.S. Actor Who Is Responsible For Tens Of Thousands Of Scam Victims!
The U.S. SEC has punished celebrities several times in recent years for promoting financial products. For example, reality TV star Kim Kardashian paid a $1.26 million fine for promoting a token on Instagram. But what should we do with a professional actor like John San Nicolas, who appears in ads for scams in exchange for payment? For example, he plays the CEO of Tesler Investments in a notorious crypto fraud campaign, which caught tens of thousands of victims for scams.
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Strange: Maltese Financial Chief Supervisor Accused Of Pushing Licensee To Sell Business To Competitor!
LifeStar Insurance, a licensed Maltese insurance firm, has filed court proceedings against its regulator and one of its top officials. The owner of major insurance company LifeStar, formerly Global Capital, has taken the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) to court, claiming “arbitrary and capricious treatment,” and accused a top MFSA official of pressuring him to sell his company to a competitor. Even under Maltese measures, this is a strange case!
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UBS Group CEO Ralph Hamers Was Best-Paid Bank Boss in 2022!
Ralph Hamers joined Swiss UBS as CEO in 2020 to become one of the highest-earning bank bosses in Europe, Financial Times reports. Previously, as CEO at Dutch ING, Hamers had complained about his pay level at ING, which was subject to strict EU rules on banker pay. He enjoyed an 11% pay bump in 2022 to become Europe’s best-paid bank boss. The Dutch executive earned $13 million in salary and bonuses, up from 11.73 million in 2021.
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Elon Musk Expects Twitter To Turn Positive in Q2 2023 With Record User Numbers And A Payment Vision!
Speaking at a Morgan Stanley investor conference on Tuesday, Elon Musk said that Twitter could return to posting positive cash flow in Q2 2023. He is still planning to introduce payments to the platform, adding that he believed it was “possible to become the biggest financial institution in the world just by providing people with convenient payment options.” According to Financial Times, Twitter’s monetizable daily active users numbers had risen to 253 million, its highest ever.
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Really? Former OneCoin Crypto Queen Ruja Ignatova Allegedly Killed On Yacht!
The former crypto queen Ruja Ignatova has been in the media for years. The founder of the giant crypto fraud scheme OneCoin disappeared in 2017. Her brother Konstantin Ignatov briefly headed the OneCoin MLM scheme as CEO before he was arrested. He pleaded guilty to fraud and money laundering charges in the U.S. in 2019. Now rumors are surfacing that Ruja Ignatova would have been murdered in 2018 on behalf of a Bulgarian mafia boss.