FinancialCrimeRiskOfficers.com

"LAST & FINAL WARNING NOTICE" screams the headline with the target's email address added for good effect.

And it goes downhill from there.

Fake from address: Bar.Petermantle@Un.org
Reply address: Bar.Petermantle@yandex.com

A Los Angeles man was sentenced this week to 240 months in federal prison for operating a Ponzi scheme that raised at least USD650 million with bogus claims that investor money would be used to acquire licensing rights to films that HBO and Netflix purportedly had agreed to distribute abroad.

Be prepared to be amazed.

Stefan Cassella, principal of Asset Forfeiture Law LLC in the USA has produced a fascinating list of cases in which the USA, at a federal level, has used civil forfeiture in relation to proceeds of criminal conduct and assets used in the commission of offences. Many of the cases are in rem. The USA is not the only country to pursue such assets but it is unusually active in the use of in rem (i.e. against the asset compared with against the person) actions in doing so. The list demonstrates an extraordinary range of criminal conduct and of assets forfeited (isn't that a much better description than "recovered"?)

It's been modified from the advance fee fraud e-mails that we are used to and someone has been to writing lessons.

It starts with an unusual approach, then moves into the same technique as we've seen from this name dozens of times over many years.

Oh, and he uses UN.ORG as the "from" address. Cheeky.

Here's our pick of the day's top five financial crime related stories picked up around the 'web.

Today's top five stories in financial crime risk and compliance.

Today's Top Five Financial Crime Risk and Compliance stories.

Today's Top Five financial crime risk and compliance stories.

Today's Top Five financial crime risk and compliance stories.

Don't miss our round-up of our top five financial crime risk and compliance (and adjacent) stories this morning.

This morning, a spam-scam arrived claiming that a subscription had been renewed.

Then a few minutes later, we came across a news article that had something in common.

Is it pure coincidence?

It's clever. It's simple. It's even got a personal identifier in it (not that that's clever - and it demonstrates that it's scam - for reasons we aren't going to explain in public)

Many people will click on this. They shouldn't.

Luke Raven, Compliance Manager with Wise, Australia, outlines the failures of the Senate Committee on Australia as a Technology and Financial Centre to come to terms with one of Australia's pet technology topics: fintechs.

The Journal of Clinical Investigation is a genuine scientific journal.

However, fraudsters have used its name to attract attention to a rogue website.

Tyrome Lewis, who organised and led a gang with the media-nickname "the Oxy-Bandits" that committed 15 armed robberies of independent “mom-and-pop” pharmacies throughout Southern California, has been sentenced to 240 months in federal prison. He was convicted earlier this year and sentenced yesterday.