William Alexander

The U. S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission has announced that its Division of Enforcement was awarded “a record total of more than $540 million in civil monetary penalties, restitution, and disgorgement from respondents and defendants in actions involving fraud, manipulation, and other misconduct” for its fiscal year ended September 30, 2007; In other regulatory news, here's a list of actions taken recently by regulators in offshore financial centers; and Microsoft Corp. has become the latest big company to sue a business, purportedly domiciled in the Cayman Islands, that registers and warehouses domain names that are confusingly similar to registered Trademarks of established enterprises.

Recently-unsealed court documents have thrown up allegations of money laundering and "unsafe banking practices" that led to the forced closure in January of Miami-based Hamilton Bank, which provided correspondent services to many offshore banks. This activity included receiving deposits of approximately $1.9 billion per year via courier from Latin American countries without conducting any checks as to its legitimacy, it has been alleged.