GRC Report Staff

At the 2025 SIFMA Anti-Money Laundering and Financial Crimes Conference in Washington, D.C., Matthew R. Galeotti, the head of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Criminal Division, unveiled significant changes to the Department’s approach to white-collar crime enforcement. In his speech, Galeotti underscored a shift towards increased transparency and fairness for businesses, with an emphasis on self-reporting and cooperation in exchange for more predictable outcomes in investigations and penalties.

The Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) has imposed a €600,000 fine on Innovestica Holdings Inc. The company found itself on the wrong side of Germany’s Securities Trading Act (WpHG) after failing to submit necessary voting rights notifications within the required time frame.

In a year shaped by war, elections, cyber threats, and the steady march of artificial intelligence, the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) didn’t just keep pace but it stayed focused. Its newly released 2024 Annual Report tells the story of a regulator under pressure, facing a storm of digital, political, and economic disruption, yet managing to deliver across a wide policy front.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has issued a hefty penalty of $215,988,868 against GVA Capital, a San Francisco-based venture capital firm. The firm is being held accountable for knowingly managing investments linked to Suleiman Kerimov, a Russian oligarch already under sanctions, and for failing to respond properly to an OFAC subpoena. This is a case that underscores the immense risks involved when gatekeepers like venture capital firms fail to uphold sanctions compliance.

Four individuals, including a U.S. government official and three business executives, have admitted their roles in a decade-long bribery and fraud scheme that cost American taxpayers more than $550 million. The guilty pleas mark the end of an extensive investigation into corruption within the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), where bribery was used to bypass the fair contracting process, all in the name of personal gain.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) is stepping up to ensure that third-party risks don’t get overlooked in the growing complexity of EU securities markets. As more companies turn to third parties for critical functions, ESMA’s new guidelines aim to help supervisors across the EU keep pace with these shifts and ensure a more secure, compliant, and resilient market.

The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision has introduced a new voluntary framework designed to guide the disclosure of such risks by banks worldwide. This framework, which offers flexibility in its implementation, aims to enhance transparency around the potential financial impact of climate change on the banking sector.