Cartels Designated as Terrorists
Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering, and Compliance Challenges in Latin America. What the C-Suite Must Know.
The U.S. designation of major cartels and transnational criminal organizations as Foreign Terrorist Organizations changed the risk calculus for banks, fintechs and corporates. Exposure that was once an anti-money laundering or sanctions issue can now carry material-support liability under U.S. counterterrorism law, even where the contact is indirect: through payments, supply chains or extortion.
“Boards are still treating cartel exposure as a compliance problem. It is now a terrorism-liability and governance problem, and the questions directors need to ask have changed.”
Sven Stumbauer
Written for the people who answer for the risk.
Across eighteen chapters, the book explains how the designations interact with Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctions, the Bank Secrecy Act and the expanded enforcement authorities of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), and what the shift means for correspondent banking, payments and cross-border trade.
Every chapter closes with The Executive's Takeaways: a briefing for directors, general counsel and chief compliance officers on what to ask and what to do next.
What it covers
- How designation works, and how to see the next one coming
- Material-support and civil liability, in plain language
- 2025 actions by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) against three Mexican financial institutions, and what they teach
- Extortion: protecting people first while managing the legal record
- Correspondent banking and payment exposure outside the United States
- Risk assessment and board oversight for the designation era
The book
- Title
- Cartels Designated as Terrorists: Sanctions, Anti-Money Laundering, and Compliance Challenges in Latin America — What the C-Suite Must Know
- Author
- Sven Stumbauer
- Publication date
- January 26, 2027
- Publisher
- Verus Consilium LLC
- Available from
- Amazon and major retailers. Order links will appear here when pre-orders open.
For teams and boards
Copies for a compliance team, a board or a client program, with an optional briefing by the author. Bulk orders of 10, 25 or 50 copies.
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For board briefings, independent reviews and advisory inquiries: sven.stumbauer@forwardglobal.com
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