This month, Russian national Feliks Medvedev faced 39 charges of money laundering, among them involving the purchase of gold bullion worth $88 million held in Singapore. The funds were allegedly used to fund Russia’s military activities in Ukraine.
The Gold Laundering Trend
Last year, the UK's National Crime Agency issued a warning, emphasising Russia’s leverage of gold in global sales as a way to bypass sanctions. In response, the UK imposed 29 new sanctions targeting supporters of Russia's gold sector, including UAE networks and major Russian gold producers.
The Need for Effective AML/CFT Measures
This case highlights the importance of effective detection and prevention methods to combat such money laundering and terrorist financing (AML/CFT) risks. Fortunately, Cynopsis' Artemis stands out as a RegTech solution uniquely positioned to address these challenges.
How Artemis can help you
Artemis has a comprehensive screening tool that checks customers against various global data sources, including terrorist and sanction lists prescribed by local regulators and authorities. By utilising reliable global databases and various sanction lists, Artemis can identify politically exposed persons (PEPs), individuals on terrorist alert lists, and those involved in money laundering activities.
Artemis's Relationship Map feature helps to provide a visual overview of connections between profiles, simplifying relationship tracking and investigation. The search function enables quick access to specific customer maps, especially useful when dealing with similar or multiple profiles, optimising case management and investigation processes.
Additionally, Artemis employs a detailed Risk Assessment methodology powered by AI. This categorises potential customer AML/CFT risks in key areas such as country, screening, and operational risks, ensuring a comprehensive risk assessment and allowing organisations to make better-informed decisions. Using this case as an example, dealings with Russia—a sanctioned jurisdiction—and the gold/commodities/precious stones sector pose elevated risks for illicit activities or sanctions evasion. Such factors could trigger alerts beyond just the name screenings themselves.
By integrating Artemis into their KYC/AML processes, organisations can streamline operations, reduce manual work, and enhance their ability to detect and prevent the next big financial crime. As financial crimes become more sophisticated and brazen, investing in advanced RegTech solutions like Artemis becomes crucial to safeguarding your organisation's reputation and financial integrity.
Source: Russian bought $88m of gold from dealer in Changi to launder funds for Ukraine invasion, The Straits Times Russia using gold to evade sanctions, warns UK, The Straits Times
About Cynopsis Solutions  Â
Cynopsis Solutions helps companies digitise and automate AML/KYC compliance processes. Our focus is on know-your-customer, anti-money laundering, and counter-terrorism financing.Cynopsis Solutions’ accolades include MAS FinTech Awards, RegTech100, and Financial Times Top 50 High Growth Companies in APAC.
Our end-to-end KYC/AML solutions are designed according to the global FATF recommendations and applicable in more than 180 jurisdictions.We've helped firms across various industries, not limited to Banking and Financial Services, Property Development FinTech, Cryptocurrency, Professional Services and Gaming sectors.