MY ARTICLE ON FINCEN IN LINKEDIN

HELLO FINCEN; THE SON OF IRAN'S SUPREME RULER, AYATOLLAH KHAMENEI, MOVED BILLIONS OF DOLLARS INTO TAX HAVEN BANKS, USING SAINT KITTS AND NEVIS SHELL CORPORATIONS

UK Media is on fire with the news that MOJTABA KHAMENEI, one of the sons of Iran's Supreme Ruler, AYATOLLAH KHAMENEI, laundered billions of dollars into tax haven banks in Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Liechtenstein, using anonymous shell companies formed in SAINT KITTS AND NEVIS. This breaking news, coming on the heels of this week's disclosure that the American AML/CFT agency FINCEN just removed its 2014 Advisory and warning on Saint Kitts & Nevis, should be a wake up call for that agency. 

The fact that such a high profile Politically Exposed Person (PEP) as Mojtaba Khanenei would be allowed to obtain corporations in Saint Kitts affirms that both the country's Registry of Companies, and its financial service firms, will sell companies to the most dangerous individuals under global sanctions, confirming that the elevated risk of any financial transactions with Saint Kitts and Nevis companies, financial institutions, government agencies, lawyers or businesses must be avoided, lest exposure to terrorist financing, money laundering and international sanctions violations be charged to anyone who makes the fatal error of dealing with any entity or individual linked to that high-risk offshore jurisdiction.

Saint Kitts should now expect the full force of United States law enforcement agencies to come down hard on all these Kittitian entities, after this despicable information has come to light. American bankers who want to avoid being indicted with them had best pay heed to the probable consequences of doing business with St. Kitts banks.

We trust that the Director of FinCEN is paying attention.

SAINT KITTS REMAINS A CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER TO U.S. FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS, AND FINCEN'S DIRECTOR SHOULD RESIGN FOR REVOKING THE AGENCY'S ADVISORY ON SKN CITIZENSHIP BY INVESTMENT PASSPORTS

                                   

FinCEN Director Andrea Gacki

Who is in command at the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network ? Obviously, they are not paying attention to what goes out the door, because FinCEN recently cancelled its critical, eleven year old Advisory on Saint Kitts & Nevis Citizenship by Investment (CBI) passports. The fact that all the old SKN passports that were in force in 2014 are no longer valid is NOT a good reason to retreat from one of the most valuable moves the agency ever published, and which made Enhanced Due Diligence the order of the day for Saint Kitts transactions. And now you have removed that warning? If anything, St. Kitts CBI passports, now held by many thousand Chinese white collar criminals, spies and fraudsters, are more dangerous today than they were in 2014.

If ANDREA GACKI, the agency's director since 2013, cannot see the fundamental error of this action, then perhaps it is time for new leadership at FinCEN, someone who is understands the unintended consequences of the removal of Advisories. She used to be the Director of OFAC, and most certainly is aware of the rampant fraud, money laundering and corruption that have fatally infected Saint Kitts & Nevis.

If I was a compliance director at a major American financial institution, I would advise my frontline staff to treat Saint Kitts & Nevis transactions as if the Advisory was still in force. FinCEN, if you are not part of the AML/CFT solution, you are part of the problem.

IS THE UNITED STATES NOW CONTEMPLATING THE EXTRADITION OF ALEX SAAB MORAN ONE MORE TIME?

I have noticed some major interest* in ALEX NAIN SAAB MORAN of late, on the part of law enforcement, meaning that my 2022 article, READ THE NAMES OF THE OTHER ALEX SAAB MORAN FAMILY MEMBERS INDICTED IN ITALY FOR MONEY LAUNDERING https://lnkd.in/eWUKqWYG has been the subject of intense interest, from ISPs known to be favorites of law enforcement and our intelligence services, are suddenly being read, four years later.

Remember, the dismissal of Saab's Federal indictment, when he was exchanged in a prisoner swap with Venezuela, was WITHOUT PREJUDICE, meaning that it can be filed again, so long as the Statute of Limitations has not run. Is he truly in custody in Caracas, as has been rumored, and will be be turned over the United States, as part of some murky DOJ deal**? We cannot say, but we will be watching.

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* THIS PARAGRAPH IN PARTICULAR?

For those readers who wanted the names of the Italian family members of Colombian money launderer ALEX NAIN SAAB MORAN (accused of laundering €350m by US) who were indicted in Rome, on multiple money laundering counts, along with Saab, and his wife, CAMILLA FABRI, they are:

(1) LORENZO ANTONELLI, the husband of Camilla's sister, BEATRICE ANTONELLI.

(2) ARIANNA FIORE, Camilla's aunt.

(3) PATRIZIA FIORE, another of Camilla's aunts.

_________________________________________

** READ THE FINE PRINT"

COMPLIANCE OFFICERS, WATCH FOR EMERGING OPPORTUNISTIC MONEY LAUNDERING OPERATIONS WHILE YOU ARE DISTRACTED BY THE UNFOLDING MIDDLE EAST WAR

                           

Professional money launderers are constantly looking for what we used to call in the Army targets of opportunity, emerging vulnerabilities that pop up unexpectedly. Put another way, the best time to launder money is in the middle of a war, a hurricane, or some other event that demands all your attention, because you might just miss an artful laundryman art work. Don't be distracted by war news, stay focused on the tasks at hand, please, lest you overlook a red flag or other indicia of money laundering that you would otherwise have caught in normal times, free of distractions.

Remember, the money launderers are betting that your attention is not 100% on your duties and responsibilities, and that they can sneak an operation past you, while your attention is other than on your workload. Focus!

PRIME MINISTER GASTON BROWNE WARNS ANTIGUANS AGAINST SEEKING A VISA AND COMING TO THE UNITED STATES, AFTER FIRST ASSURING THEM THAT THE NEW TIGHTENED VISA RULES ARE ONLY TEMPORARY

Why is this man smiling? His people have a problem

GASTON BROWNE, the embattled Prime Minister of ANTIGUA & BARBUDA, can't seem to get his story straight; the information that he has been giving to his constituents on the status of the availability of visas for Antiguans to enter the United States has not only been inconsistent, but it changes daily.

First, he assured Antiguans that in his conversations with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, he came away with the impression that the new 90-day, single entry status on visas assigned to Antigua was merely temporary, and subject to change. If you read the fine print on what is called the Visa Pilot program, however, it is for a term of one year; that's not temporary by any means.

The program also requires up to a USD$15,000 bond, payable in advance, to insure that visitors do not overstay a visa that has been granted; he ignores that critical detail completely, as well as the fact that only a very limited number of American airports are authorized for arrival under this category of visa, and Miami International is not one of them, meaning that additional, and costly, travel may be necessary for Antiguans who wish to visit Florida to transact commercial business, or to visit expat relatives.

Then, in a public statement, he stated that Antiguans should only resort to making application for a U.S. visa if it is critical and essential, thereby discouraging most of them from even applying. He attempted to sugar-coat that advice by adding that, in cases of dire medical emergency, Antigua would apply for an exemption, but at the same time failed to explain whether it would be approved. By this statement, he is saying that Antiguans wishing to visit relatives in America, or conduct business should forget about making an application.

Finally, to further dissuade them from even considering completing an application, and submitting to an interview, Browne stated that this is not a good time for West Indians to even be present inside the United States, given the risk that they, as members of a minority with non-American accents, could be targeted for detention by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and be physically harmed in the process. He admitted that he has no intention of visiting the US at this time, even though he possesses a valid visa. He is trying to instill fear of injury, to persuade Antiguans not to apply. The inconsistencies in his statements are not assuring, and such a spin on the truth is disturbing for a leader of a nation.

FRAUDSTERS CREATE BOGUS NEW YORK CITY LAW FIRM, COMPLETE WITH FICTITIOUS IMMIGRATION COURT ON VIDEOCONFERENCE, TO CHEAT CLIENTS OUT OF HUGE LEGAL FEES

                               

Remember that 2019 case in France, regarding the fraudsters who impersonated the French Foreign Minister via video, and who defrauded wealthy businessmen out of millions, who believed they were aiding in terrorist kidnapping cases? 
FRENCH FRAUDSTERS IMPERSONATE FOREIGN MINISTER, TAKE €8m FROM VICTIM

The bogus French Foreign =Minister

Well, someone has taken a page out of that playbook, and set up not only a bogus New York City immigration law firm, but a dummy immigration court, complete with robed judges and law enforcement officials, all via videoconference, to fool clients into paying up to six figures for a "successful" immigration proceeding. The defendants advertised on social media, and everything was done remotely, with some victims actually appearing remotely, as these "lawyers" won their immigration cases.

The victims, believing that they were the beneficiaries of some very astute legal advice and counsel, neglected to attend to their bona fide immigration cases, and one was about to be deported as the result. Two of the defendants were arrested as they were about to use one way tickets back to Colombia.

The one glaring mistake that I note the fraudsters made was that they conducted the entire "court hearings" in Spanish; US court hearings are conducted entirely on English. They face some serious charges: Conspiracy to Commit Wire Fraud, Wire Fraud,Money Laundering Conspiracy, and False Impersonation of an Officer or Employee of the United States. If convicted, it will be many years before their release and immediate deportation abroad. (Yes, they themselves are not citizens).

I wonder what the now-imprisoned French fraudsters think of these American criminals, stealing their concept of staging bogus officials appearing remotely, defraud victims of their money.

EXTENDED WAR IN THE MIDDLE EAST WILL CAUSE THOUSANDS OF FRIGHTENED CBI PASSPORT HOLDERS IN THE MIDDLE EAST TO RELOCATE TO THE EASTERN CARIBBEAN STATES

Damage is widespread throughout the Gulf State

The Iranian missile attacks upon the supposedly safe Gulf states, where dire conditions faced by tens of thousands of individuals who hold Citizenship by Investment passports issued by the five Eastern Caribbean CBI & CIP states,(ST. KITTS, ST. LUCIA, DOMINICA, ANTIGUA & GRENADA) could drive those High Net Worth Individuals to immediately relocate out of the Middle East, for their own personal safety, with all of their immediate and extended families, all of whom are economic passport holders. Remember, even distant relatives, minor children, cousins and others all hold CBI passports, and their families will be bringing them along, seeking a safe haven from the war.

The impact of this human wave of emergency immigration, which is occurring due to a lack of knowledge as to how long the war between the US and Israel, and Iran, will last, and how widespread the attacks on Middle Eastern countries will ultimately extend to, is a major factor in this urgent travel to the safe Caribbean states where entry is guaranteed due to possession of economic passports of CARICOM countries. Immigration authorities in the CBI Caribbean states, who have only a small contingent of agents and office staff, will be totally overloaded will the unexpected volume, and delays in processing arrivals will completely break down at the region's tiny airports.

What effect this mass influx of individuals, many of whom have no residences in the region, do not speak English, and will bring with them extended families, we cannot say, but as they must be accepted due to their citizenship status, chaos may be the result, as residential facilities, the small local economies, health care, and other infrastructure may be strained to the limit by the new refugees.

We will have monitors in place in the region, who will reports back to us on all unfolding developments in this new Caribbean crisis.

CARIBBEAN CBI PASSPORT HOLDERS WONDER IF THE NEW UNITED KINGDOM ETA POLICY WILL RESULT IN BEING DENIED ENTRY

After seeing how Norway artfully blocked Caribbean CBI passport holders from visa-free entry, without requiring any policy changes, by employing an obscure law requiring personal appearance to pick up a passport, insiders in the investment migration industry are wondering if a similar ploy will be the case with the new United Kingdom ETA ( Electronic Travel Authorisation) rules, which became effective on February 25, 2026.

For those who believe UK Migration and Citizenship will be unable to spot them as holders of economic (investment) passports, simply checking all the passports of the five Eastern Caribbean CBI-passport states, and looking at those individuals whose place of birth is other than the country that issued the passport, will result in 99% of those in that category.

We await the screams and cries of those individuals who spent six figures to enter the UK visa-free, and are now blocked from even obtaining a ticket to Heathrow Airport. Remember, the same thing is happening in Fall 2026 with the European Union.

Whether these events will be an existential threat to Caribbean CBI we cannot say, but we will be watching.

VICTIM OF UNREGULATED ANGUILLA SHELL COMPANY SCAM REPORTED DETAILS, BUT HAS BEEN IGNORED IN INTERNATIONAL FRAUD

Allow me to put the facts in the victim's own succinct and concise words. Given the prominent position of INFINOX in the industry, we cannot understand the brazen theft of a customer's middle six figure profit, and the fact that Anguilla regulators, who are charged with oversight and supervision, have not taken the appropriate steps to enforce the law, and aid the victim.

Follow our continuing investigation, step by step, through our analysis and commentary, as it unfolds here.

US TIGHTENS VISA RULES; SINGLE ENTRY, ONLY VALID FOR 90 DAY PERIOD; OLD RULES NO LONGER IN FORCE

Issued by the White House

There has been a new decree from President Donald Trump: In addition to imposing a complete ban on Caribbean nationals emigrating to the United States, from the five CBI Eastern Caribbean states, America has now placed severe limitations on the issuance of visitor visas for citizens of ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA, and the COMMONWEALTH OF DOMINICA. Only single entry visas will be granted for nationals from those countries, and they will be valid for 90 days. The prior 10 year, multiple entry visas will not longer be issued, due to what is stated was widespread abuse of that privilege. Visas for St. Kitts, St. Lucia and other Eastern Caribbean states remain paused at this time

The grounds for all these restrictions, which was stated in the Presidential Action, is the Citizenship by Investment (CBI) passport sales programs being operated by the five Eastern Caribbean States.

$ 3bn CHINESE MONEY LAUNDERING KINGPIN ESCAPED SINGAPORE CRIMINAL DRAGNET BY ONE DAY USING HIS VANUATU CBI PASSPORT TO CHEAT JUSTICE

Information released this week in Singapore, regarding one of the principal Chinese players in the three billion dollar Singapore money laundering operation confirmed that he escaped the massive arrests by only one day, by leaving Singapore with his VANUATU Citizenship by Investment (CBI) passport to exit with impunity. The details came out in connection with testimony from one of his subordinates, who was assigned the storage of the fugitive's $7m liquor collection, after he fled to avoid criminal prosecution for the money laundering of illicit mainland China gambling profits.

While we do not wish to portray all CBI passport holders as bad actors, a large portion of the world's transnational criminals arrested around the world are found to be holding, and employing, CBI passports to facilitate their offenses. we also remember that some of the other money launderers arrested in the Singapore case held ST. KITTS AND NEVIS passports. Compliance officers should always institute enhanced due diligence procedures on any customer or client or third party or counterparty, found to be using a CBI or CIP passport for identification or account opening.

ANOTHER WHISTLEBLOWER ACCUSES UNREGULATED ANGUILLA SHELL COMPANY OF MISCONDUCT FOR SEIZING HIS SIX FIGURE PROFITS IN INFINOX OFFSHORE SCANDAL

We have received a new report from an Asian reader who, after reviewing our recent investigative series on Anguilla, has detailed a tale of his CFD trading at INFINOX, through its offshore facilities. He asserts that, after he made a profit of USD$650,000, his funds were illegally seized, and his entire trade and transaction history deleted All his subsequent efforts to recover his funds have been in vain.

Of interest is the fact that, when he sought relief through the Mauritius regulator, he learned that the appropriate corporate entity is an Anguilla company. Inquiries from Anguilla regulatory authorities appear to have been totally ignored by INFINOX, and his next move is UK supervisory regulators, as although he was dealing with a Mauritius-licensed entity, it now appear that iut was an regulated Anguilla IBC. Our investigation continues.

WTF? FINCEN WRONGLY RESCINDS ITS LANDMARK ADVISORY ON MONEY LAUNDERING AND FINANCIAL CRIME CAUSED BY SAINT KITTS & NEVIS CITIZENSHIP BY INVESTMENT PASSPORTS; IF ANYTHING, THE SITUATION IS WORSE TODAY THAN IN 2014, DUE TO THE CARIBBEAN GALAXY SCANDAL

What on earth is going on over the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN)? Someone over there has now rescinded its groundbreaking Advisory FIN-2014-A004, entitled PASSPORTS OBTAINED THROUGH ST. KITTS AND NEVIS CITIZENSHIP-BY-INVESTMENT PROGRAM USED TO FACILITATE FINANCIAL CRIME, whose content remains painfully accurate today, and was the first real FinCEN countermove against the widespread use of CBI by financial criminals.

If anything, the unlawful sale of tens of thousands of SKN passports by the Chinese controlled company, CARIBBEAN GALAXY GROUP, to dodgy Asian financial criminals, intelligence agents, sanctions evaders, and people engaged in industrial espionage for China, has made the situation worse than a decade ago, and the Trump Administration has, if anything, ratcheted up its focus on that corrupt Eastern Caribbean state in 2026. So what happened here?

America's bankers expect more from their primary AML/CFT regulatory agency than this complete lapse of judgment, but given that most senior leadership there only use it as a stepladder to a subsequent lucrative career in the private sector, rather than stay on for a decade or more, I guess we should not be surprised. FinCEN, reinstate Advisory 2014-A004, forthwith, so that compliance officers will continue to correctly regard CBI passports as high risk.

HOW MONEY LAUNDERERS VIEW IBC SHELL COMPANIES: "USE THEM, ABUSE THEM AND LOSE THEM"

"Prime Minister Gaston Browne says about 13,500 international business companies have been removed from the corporate registry as authorities move to strengthen compliance and oversight in the offshore sector." (Antigua Newsroom, 24, February, 2026.)

If you learned last week, on Nikki Phoenix' program, that 13,500 international business companies (IBC) were struck off (administratively dissolved) in Antigua and Barbuda, you know from my response that many of these corporations, most of whom were certainly formed by money launderers, had already fulfilled their illicit purpose, and were intentionally allowed to expire, before any serious beneficial ownership and officer information was disclosed to regulators. All this nonsense emanating from Antigua's Prime Minister, GASTON BROWNE, to the effect that the dissolution of this large number of companies was evidence of compliance success on the part of his government were merely covering up the fact that Antigua remains one of the most lax offshore jurisdictions for financial criminals.

In my old line of work, cleaning the proceeds of crime for narcotics traffickers, the modus operandi was to efficiently use, abuse and lose companies, way in advance of any reporting requirements imposed by regulators. Laundrymen are well aware of the Window of Opportunity which exists, between the formation of and IBC, and the date in which mandatory information must be delivered.

Therefore, the measure of anti-money laundering in any financial services jurisdiction is not how many dodgy shell companies have been allowed to expire, unmolested by local authorities, but how many money laundering prosecutions have been brought, and in Antigua, the answer is generally zero; I rest my case.