READ FINCEN'S RED FLAGS OF RUSSIAN SANCTIONS EVASION

The Financial Crime Enforcement Network, more commonly known as  FinCEN, recently published a heavily annotated article entitled FinCEN Provides Financial Institutions with Red Flags on Potential Russian Sanctions Evasion Attempts. We have extracted the heart of that article, what the agency regards as the Red Flags of Russian sanctions evasion activity, and we list them all here below, for the benefit of our compliance readers, whom we trust have taken our recent article, Where Will Russian Sanctions Evaders/Money Launderers go now ? Scandinavia, Perhaps, to heart, and must brief their staff:

                     
                              RED FLAGS OF RUSSIAN SANCTIONS EVASION

1. Use of corporate vehicles (i.e. legal entities, such as shell companies, and legal arrangements) to obscure (i) ownership, (ii) source of funds, or (iii) countries involved, particularly sanctioned jurisdictions.

2. Use of shell companies to conduct international wire transfers, often involving financial institutions in jurisdictions distinct from company registration.

3. Use of third parties to shield the identity of sanctioned persons and/or PEPs seeking to hide the origin or ownership of funds, for example, to hide the purchase or sale of real estate.17

4. Accounts in jurisdictions or with financial institutions that are experiencing a sudden rise in value being transferred to their respective areas or institutions, without a clear economic or business rationale.

5. Jurisdictions previously associated with Russian financial flows that are identified as having a notable recent increase in new company formations.

6. Newly established accounts that attempt to send or receive funds from a sanctioned institution or an institution removed from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT).

7. Non-routine foreign exchange transactions that may indirectly involve sanctioned Russian financial institutions, including transactions that are inconsistent with activity over the prior 12 months. For example, the Central Bank of the Russian Federation may seek to use import or export companies to engage in foreign exchange transactions on its behalf and to obfuscate its involvement.