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- 💥 FinCEN Delays. Wise Fined. Monzo Slammed. Sarah Beth Felix Unfiltered.
💥 FinCEN Delays. Wise Fined. Monzo Slammed. Sarah Beth Felix Unfiltered.
Illicit Edge - Edition for July 11, 2025
🎧 PODCAST DROP!
FINCRIME UNFILTERED
Penalties, Postponements & Regulatory Shocks with Sarah Beth Felix
After a July 4th break, Sarah Beth is back with expert analysis.
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This week, Sarah Beth takes aim at a trio of headlines shaking up the compliance world:
🚨 FinCEN’s 311 Delay – The compliance deadline for U.S. financial institutions targeting fentanyl-linked Mexican entities is pushed to Sept 4. Sarah Beth breaks down why this “telegraphed pass” gives bad actors time to move money — and what smart institutions should be doing right now.
💸 $4.2M Penalty for Wise – Regulators say Wise flubbed Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs), monitoring, and basic program controls. But Sarah Beth goes deeper — asking how we’re still using a 2008 MSB exam manual in a world of crypto and instant global payments.
🇬🇧 Monzo’s FCA Smackdown – The UK challenger bank got hit with a £21M fine for onboarding 60,000 high-risk accounts while growing like wildfire — and operating without a proper Anti-Money Laundering (AML) head for almost 2 years. Sarah Beth compares the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)’s clarity to the U.S.’s regulatory murk.
🔥 Plus: Why the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is suddenly red-hot and how every AML officer should be educating business clients on their sanctions obligations today.
Illicit Edge delivers insight at the intersection of financial crime, global conflict, and strategic risk. Stay sharp!