Financial

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) have fined TSB Bank plc (“TSB”) a total of £48,650,000 for operational risk management and governance failures, including management of outsourcing risks, relating to the bank’s IT upgrade programme. Technical failures in TSB’s IT system ultimately resulted in customers being unable to access banking services.

https://www.fca.org.uk/news/press-releases/tsb-fined-48m-operational-resilience-failings

A couple from Anglesey have been sentenced for their involvement in a multi-million-pound fraud of investors, which helped him and his wife lead a "lavish" lifestyle.

https://www.itv.com/news/wales/2022-12-16/anglesey-couple-sentenced-over-fraud-which-funded-lavish-lifestyle

A man from Lancashire has been arrested in an early morning raid as part of a regional investigation into fraud.

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/lancashire-man-arrested-fraud-money-112332704.html?soc_src=social-sh&soc_trk=tw&tsrc=twtr

The investigation and enforcement of potential sanctions violations by crypto exchanges is an area of focus in the US at present. The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control’s (OFAC) recent settlement with Kraken, a global virtual currency exchange, is the most recent OFAC case demonstrating the risks for virtual currency platforms that process transactions without comprehensive sanctions controls. Kraken agreed to pay USD 362,158.70 to settle its potential civil liability for alleged breaches of the Iranian Transactions and Sanctions Regulations and also agreed to invest USD 100,000 in the implementation and improvement of its sanctions compliance controls. The indications are that this enforcement trend will develop across the UK and Europe in 2023, as regulators in both jurisdictions are looking to bring crypto exchanges generally more into the regulatory fold.

https://www.globalinvestigations.blog/cryptocurrency/increasing-us-enforcement-action-for-sanctions-violations-by-crypto-exchanges-likely-to-have-ripple-effect-in-uk-and-europe/

The fallen crypto mogul is fighting off accusations he followed a similar playbook to Madoff – and deceived investors in the process

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/dec/17/sam-bankman-fried-bernie-madoff-fraud-ftx?CMP=share_btn_tw

NEW YORK (AP) — A co-founder of the fraudulent cryptocurrency OneCoin, a pyramid scheme that conned billions of dollars from investors worldwide, pleaded guilty to wire fraud and money laundering charges, U.S. prosecutors said Friday.

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/bogus-bitcoin-killer-cryptocurrency-founder-210648946.html?soc_src=social-sh&soc_trk=tw&tsrc=twtr

The FCA has fined Santander UK Plc £107,793,300 after it found gaps in its anti-money laundering controls, affecting its business banking customers.

https://www.finextra.com/newsarticle/41467/santander-uk-fined-1077m-for-repeated-aml-failures

A solicitor who swindled American investors out of $16 million (£13m) while acting for them in the purchase of the iconic Taymouth Castle in Perthshire, where Queen Victoria spent her honeymoon, has been sentenced to 12 years in jail – a term believed to be a new record for a lawyer guilty of dishonesty.

https://www.scottishlegal.com/articles/lawyer-at-centre-of-ps13m-scottish-castle-fraud-jailed-for-12-years

The High Court has ordered a number of crypto exchanges to reveal the personal data of some of their users after a fraud was uncovered.

https://www.ftadviser.com/investments/2022/12/02/uk-court-orders-crypto-exchanges-to-release-fraudsters-data/

The value of reported UK cryptocurrency fraud has jumped by 32% in a single year, from £171 million to £226 million*, shows data from Pinsent Masons, the multinational law firm.

https://ifamagazine.com/article/value-of-uk-crypto-fraud-rises-32-to-226-million-in-a-single-year/