In the morning of 8 September, coordinated searches and witness hearings in Palma de Mallorca (Spain), the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark took place to halt the activities of a criminal group committing large-scale investment fraud, causing damages amounting to over EUR 55 million to a large number of victims across Europe. The action followed a complex, three-year-long investigation, which was led by the Public Prosecution Office (PPO) of Dresden and the State Office of Criminal Investigations of Saxony in Germany and coordinated through Eurojust. Continue reading…

Carolyn Rogers, Secretary General of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, recently delivered a keynote speech at the The Kangaroo Group virtual debate on 8 September 2021. When she received the invitation, the name of the group caught her attention: she had to admit to needing to do a bit of research to find out what possible interest a group interested in kangaroos would have in bank regulation. But she was pleased to discover that the organisation has a lot in common with the Basel Committee. Continue reading…

As of today, the SOMI Foundation makes it possible for all European consumers to check via its SOMI app whether they have become a victim of the Facebook data leak from April this year. It can also reveal which of their personal data is circulating on the Dark Web. In total, personal data of more than 533 million Facebook accounts were leaked in April 2021, including 96.7 million European accounts. After verifying their own data, consumers can participate in the foundation’s legal investigation and possible collective claim against Facebook, which requires collection of evidence of GDPR violation from the data breach. The foundation is offering a total of €10,000 to anyone who can prove with their personal data that Facebook has violated the GDPR. Continue reading…

by Michel Klompmaker

We recently spoke with Arnoud Engelfriet in the heart of Amsterdam about Lynn Legal’s legal tech solution. Lynn Legal is actually a kind of cross between a modern IT company and a legal consultancy. Founders Arnoud Engelfriet and Steven Ras (see photo from left to right) are convinced that legal processes can be organised more intuitively and efficiently thanks to the application of modern technology. Their lawyer bots have already reviewed more than 14,000 NDAs and more than 1,000 data processing agreements since the beginning of 2021. In total, more than 50,000 legal problems have been spotted and resolved. We spoke with Arnoud about the background, the present and the future. Continue reading…

In many countries, issuing and investing in bonds can be cumbersome and complex, involving many steps and parties, and typically requiring a considerable financial commitment from the investor. For those investing in environmentally friendly projects, there is uncertainty about whether the bond issuer is delivering the positive green impact it committed to at issuance. Also, there are typically no liquid and transparent secondary markets for retail investors. The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Innovation Hub Hong Kong Centre and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) joined forces with the technology industry on Project Genesis to build a prototype digital infrastructure that enables green investments, improves transparency on the use of proceeds, and thereby helps meet regional and global environmental and sustainability goals. Continue reading…

An online scam involving the sale of protective materials against COVID-19, such as facemasks, has been halted with the support of Eurojust. During a joint action day conducted on 10 August, 34 searches took place across Romania, Ireland and the Netherlands. In total, 23 suspects were charged, of whom ten have been detained, with Eurojust enabling cross-border judicial cooperation. Companies in at least 20 countries were defrauded of approximately EUR 1 million. Continue reading…

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), the EU’s securities markets regulator, has fined DTCC Derivatives Repository Plc (DDRL) a total of €408,000 for seven infringements of the European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR) regarding data confidentiality, data integrity, and direct and immediate access to data. The breaches relate to: granting certain asset managers access to data that they were not entitled to receive; setting up its IT system in a way which altered the substance of certain information reported to DDRL; and failing to provide regulators with direct and immediate access to relevant data. Continue reading…

by Elfriede Sixt

EFRI, an association based in Vienna, Austria, set up in spring 2020, by now represents more than 1.052 European consumers who were defrauded by cybercriminals as of writing over EUR 59,2 million in the form of investment scams also referred to as boiler room scams. HSBC, one of the world’s largest banks, is known for being a “dirty” bank. It is public knowledge that HSBC for decades has laundered hundreds of millions of dollars for Mexican drug cartels and HSBC took a prominent role in about all scandals which evolved during the past years: Panama Papers, Swiss Leaks, … (a video on the history of HSBC and its involvement in crimes can be watched here). So probably it is not surprising that this “dirty” bank is also heavily involved in Cybercriminal activities. Continue reading…

Scientists are observing changes in the Earth’s climate in every region and across the whole climate system, according to the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Report, released on August 9. Many of the changes observed in the climate are unprecedented in thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of years, and some of the changes already set in motion—such as continued sea level rise—are irreversible over hundreds to thousands of years. However, strong and sustained reductions in emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gases would limit climate change. While benefits for air quality would come quickly, it could take 20-30 years to see global temperatures stabilise, according to the IPCC Working Group I report, Climate Change 2021: the Physical Science Basis, approved on Friday by 195 member governments of the IPCC, through a virtual approval session that was held over two weeks starting on July 26. Continue reading…