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The Independent
5 hours ago
- Business
- The Independent
Trump administration is reportedly looking to cut language services at the IRS
Reports suggest the Trump administration is considering eliminating language services at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). This potential move follows Donald Trump 's executive order declaring English the official language of the United States. Attorney General Pam Bondi issued a memo directing federal agencies, including the Treasury Department, to plan for phasing out 'unnecessary multilingual offerings.' The IRS currently provides extensive language support, such as translated forms, free phone and in-person translation, and multilingual digital platforms. The proposed changes could significantly impede non-English speaking individuals from fulfilling their tax obligations, particularly amidst concerns about IRS cooperation with immigration enforcement.
Korea Herald
7 hours ago
- Business
- Korea Herald
US takes flurry of steps to disrupt N. Korea's illicit revenue generation
The United States announced a package of actions Thursday to disrupt North Korea's illicit schemes to generate revenue for its nuclear and missile programs, including offering rewards for North Koreans involved in the schemes, and sanctioning a North Korean firm and associated people. The move came although US President Donald Trump has signaled his openness to reengaging with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, raising speculation that he could seek to resume his personal diplomacy, which led to three in-person meetings between him and Kim during his first term. The Trump administration described the move as a "whole-of-government" effort that involved an array of organizations, including the Department of State, Justice and the Treasury. The State Department said its Transnational Organized Crime Rewards Program is offering rewards totaling up to $15 million for information leading to arrests or convictions of seven North Koreans -- Sim Hyon-sop and six co-conspirators. Sim and the others were charged for their role in illicit activities to buy and sell tobacco from North Korea to gain access to US dollars, according to the department. The reward offers include an increase of up to $7 million for Sim, up to $3 million each for Myong Chol-min and Kim Se-un, and up to $500,000 each for Kim Yong-bok, Kim Chol-min, Ri Tong-min and Ri Won-ho. Sim and some of his co-conspirators, including Kim Se-un, have also been involved in illicit information technology IT worker schemes. The North is thought to have sent thousands of IT workers abroad to orchestrate fraudulent IT work, often to Russia and China, the department said. The department stressed that the North's revenue generation schemes, including cryptocurrency theft, trafficking in counterfeit goods, oil smuggling, and other transnational criminal activities, often target US companies and US citizens to raise funds for Pyongyang's weapons programs that threaten the US homeland and stand in breach of UN and US sanctions. "Today's actions illustrate the US government's commitment to mitigating such threats posed by North Korea to protect US companies, the US financial system, and American citizens," the department said. "The United States will not stand idly by while North Korea profits from criminal activity to fund its destabilizing actions." In a coordinated move, the Treasury Department sanctioned the North's Korea Sobaeksu Trading Company and three associated individuals -- Kim Se-un, Jo Kyong-hun and Myong -- for their involvement in the evasion of US and UN sanctions and efforts to generate revenue clandestinely for Pyongyang, including through IT worker schemes. "The DPRK relies on front companies like Korea Sobaesku Trading Company and key facilitators to procure materials and generate revenue for the regime's illegal nuclear and ballistic missile programs," Bradley Smith, the director of the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, said. "Our commitment is clear: Treasury, as part of a whole-of-government effort, will continue to hold accountable those who seek to infiltrate global supply chains and enable the sanctions evasion activities that further the Kim regime's destabilizing agenda." Alongside the Treasury and State Departments, the Justice Department unsealed indictments against seven North Koreans for it called the criminal avoidance of sanctions under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act involving the illicit trafficking of counterfeit cigarettes. Asked if Thursday's actions signaled that diplomacy with Pyongyang would be difficult for the time being, a State Department spokesperson pointed out the recalcitrant regime's advancing military threats to the US and its allies, and reaffirmed the US' commitment to the "complete denuclearization" of the North. "North Korea continues to advance its destabilizing weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs in violation of multiple UN Security Council resolutions. These programs pose a threat to America, our allies, and partners, and undermine security in the region," the spokesperson told Yonhap News Agency via email. "We continue to consult closely with the Republic of Korea, Japan, and other allies and partners to deter North Korean aggression. Our commitments to the defense of the Republic of Korea and Japan are ironclad," the official added, referring to South Korea by its official name. The spokesperson also recalled attention to Trump's diplomacy with the North during his first term, saying it resulted in the first leader-level commitment from the North to denuclearize. (Yonhap)
Washington Post
13 hours ago
- Business
- Washington Post
IRS considers eliminating non-English language tax services
Trump administration officials are considering eliminating multi-language services at the IRS, according to records obtained by The Washington Post and two people familiar with the situation, a move that would make it dramatically more difficult for non-English-speaking individuals to file their taxes. The people said the IRS is evaluating how to comply with President Donald Trump's executive order declaring English the official language of the United States — a power that some legal scholars say the president does not have. Both people spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of professional reprisal. Attorney General Pam Bondi issued guidance to federal agencies on July 14 on how to implement that order. It requires officials to release department-wide plans 'to phase out unnecessary multilingual offerings' and 'consider redirecting these funds towards research and programs that would expedite English-language acquisition and increase English-language proficiency and assimilation.' 'A shared language binds Americans together, transcending different backgrounds to create a common foundation for public discourse, government operations, and civic life, while leaving ample room for the vibrant linguistic diversity that thrives in private and community spheres,' Bondi's memo said. The United States by law does not require an official language, though Trump signed an order on March 1 declaring it 'in America's best interest for the Federal Government to designate one — and only one — official language.' 'Establishing English as the official language will not only streamline communication but also reinforce shared national values, and create a more cohesive and efficient society,' Trump's order states. In response to Bondi's guidance, Treasury Department officials wrote in emails Sunday that the IRS would need to revaluate the agency's 'Commitment to assist non-English speaking taxpayers understand their tax obligations states,' a policy that now requires it to serve 'those who lack a full command of the English language.' It may also need to review — and decide whether to cease providing — translations for more than 100 forms in Spanish and other languages, free phone and in-person translation services, the IRS's multi-language website, its Spanish-language social media accounts and programs that allow taxpayers to receive forms and notifications in the language of their choosing. Representatives from the White House and Treasury Department did not respond to requests for comment. A Justice Department representative declined to comment. It's not clear how other federal agencies are will implement Trump's order. Bondi said, in her guidance, that she was ending the federal government's Limited English Proficiency services, which dictates how agencies serve individuals for whom English is not their first language or who struggle with English comprehension. The IRS's current civil rights policy says the agency 'does not tolerate discrimination by its employees against anyone because of age, sex, color, disability, race, religion, and national origin (including limited English proficiency).' The tax service eliminated its civil rights division in April. Separately, fears among Spanish-speaking taxpayers about the IRS's collaboration with immigration enforcement officials led to steep drops in tax compliance among immigrant communities in certain parts of the country. 'Somebody is calling usually because they have a problem, and if they can't get through to someone who speaks their language, it just delays everything,' said Carlos Lopez, who runs a multilingual tax prep service in Salinas, California. 'The people who are calling the IRS are looking for help for free, most of the time because they can't afford it. So what do you do? You don't pay.' The IRS in March renewed its contract for phone interpreter services, according to two other people familiar with the matter, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of professional reprisal. Officials from the U.S. DOGE Service, the Trump administration's cost-cutting arm, had required the tax agency to review all of its expiring contracts. Senior IRS and Treasury Department officials agreed the interpreters were necessary, the people said, though the contract was renewed for only a handful of months. It is set to expire before the end of the year, one of the people said. It is unclear whether new IRS Commissioner Billy Long will continue the services. 'I believe maintaining multilingual options for how taxpayers engage the IRS is essential to the mission,' Danny Werfel, the IRS commissioner under the Biden administration, said in an interview. 'The IRS is charged with helping people and businesses meet their tax obligations. The more comprehensively the IRS does that, regardless of what language they do it in, the better the financial bottom line of our nation's government will be.' Building the IRS's multilingual capabilities was a priority of Trump's first-term IRS commissioner, Charles Rettig. The son of a German immigrant and the spouse of a native Vietnamese speaker, Rettig led the agency to provide tax-filing forms in Spanish beginning in 2021 and to translate the IRS's 20 most issued notices into Spanish, simplified and traditional Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese and Russian. That year, there were nearly 90 million visits to non-English pages on the IRS's website, the agency reported.
The Hill
14 hours ago
- Business
- The Hill
Banks are carrying the risk of America's foreign policy
The Treasury Department wants banks to act like national security agencies. But the infrastructure isn't there, the guidance doesn't arrive fast enough and the priorities shift too quickly for institutions to keep up. In theory, a risk-based approach to anti-money laundering and sanctions enforcement is supposed to make compliance smarter. In practice, it's become a liability. Banks are being held responsible for foreign policy pivots they didn't cause, can't predict and are rarely equipped to manage. Take Syria. The sanctions shift in June caught everyone off guard. One day, hundreds of blacklisted entities were just gone — no heads-up, no pattern. And oddly, many also stayed sanctioned with no explanation. Inside banks, it wasn't clear what to do. Teams were yanking controls, second-guessing everything, hoping they weren't missing something that would blow back later. No safe harbor was granted. No transition period was offered. It wasn't guidance — it was whiplash. In May, the Trump administration secured $600 billion in Saudi investment pledges, arms agreements with Riyadh, and commercial pacts with the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, jurisdictions with known financial crime vulnerabilities. The United Arab Emirates was only removed from international watch lists in 2024. Weeks later, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network designated three Mexican financial institutions as primary money laundering concerns under new fentanyl-related authorities, cutting off U.S. correspondent access without warning or transition. Institutions with exposure had to unwind positions and coordinate emergency legal reviews in hours. As policy swings between high-dollar engagement and abrupt enforcement, banks are expected to interpret shifting national priorities without reliable guidance, safe harbors or regulatory infrastructure. This pattern is now familiar: Foreign policy decisions are made quickly, implemented aggressively and left for the private sector to decode. And that decoding process isn't theoretical, it's budgeted, resourced and internalized by banks with finite headcount and finite patience. Meanwhile, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network's beneficial ownership registry remains structurally hollow. As of March, U.S. companies are no longer required to report ownership data, leaving financial institutions without access to the very information they were promised. The database, once intended to illuminate shell structures and illicit ownership chains, is still cited in federal guidance but remains effectively unusable. With access restricted to a phased rollout and core data now absent, institutions are being held to standards they cannot operationalize. On the sanctions front, Russia enforcement has resulted in over 2,500 designations since 2022. These include banks, oligarchs, industrial sectors, shipping entities and digital asset infrastructure. The scale of enforcement has been unmatched, but typology guidance often lags weeks behind. General licenses arrive late. Enforcement FAQs change midstream. Risk modeling is updated in arrears, not in anticipation. In the United Kingdom, 82 percent of banks admitted to skipping basic verification checks on new customers, and 94 percent do not run daily screenings on existing clients, a worrying number given the rapid changes in sanctions. While these findings reflect U.K. institutions, they offer a stark warning: Even in highly regulated markets, the infrastructure banks rely on isn't scaling with enforcement expectations. In this environment, institutions are penalized not just for doing the wrong thing, but for failing to predict the next shift. They're expected to interpret national security posture in real time, while receiving no classified insight, no operational roadmap and no consistency in enforcement tone. The result? They preempt. They freeze accounts on speculation. They sever correspondent relationships on rumor. This isn't just frustrating, it's structurally unsound. Banks are now de-risking entire regions not because of active sanctions, but because of anticipated volatility. They're refusing transactions not because they're prohibited, but because they might become politically radioactive later. Compliance programs weren't built to carry this weight, and the government isn't helping them do it. Funding is flat. Tools are inconsistent. And regulators still expect real-time decisions in a system designed for after-the-fact review. The message to financial institutions is clear: Enforce foreign policy priorities. The infrastructure, stability and liability protections? Those are still pending. This isn't a partisan problem. It's a systemic one. Democratic and Republican administrations alike have made aggressive use of Treasury authorities to pursue foreign policy goals. But neither has addressed the operational burden left behind. Anti-money laundering compliance and sanctions enforcement have quietly become tools of statecraft, handed off to private institutions that cannot absorb the complexity, ambiguity and legal risk of that delegation. The result is a landscape defined by fragmentation, second-guessing and exposure. Institutions that get it right see no reward. Institutions that guess wrong face enforcement, reputational fallout, and program overhauls. Risk-based compliance only works when the risk is defined, the expectations are stable and the information flow is reciprocal. That's not what banks are getting today. They're being asked to manage not just compliance, but also geopolitical unpredictability. They are, functionally, the operational front line of an outsourced enforcement system. This is not sustainable, scalable or safe.
Miami Herald
19 hours ago
- Business
- Miami Herald
Pam Bondi Handed Epstein Files Road Map-'Follow the Money'
Senator Ron Wyden, the most senior Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, has written to Attorney General Pam Bondi urging her to "follow the money" and launch a fresh investigation into the financial affairs of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein using Treasury Department documents. In his letter sent on Monday, Wyden said the Department of Justice (DOJ) "failed to conduct a real investigation into the funding of Epstein's sex trafficking operation" and accused four major banks of processing "billions in suspicious transactions that flowed through Epstein's accounts" that were not flagged to the Treasury until after the financier's suicide in August 2019. Newsweek contacted Senator Wyden and the DOJ for comment on Thursday via email and online inquiry form respectively outside of regular office hours. Earlier this month the DOJ and the FBI released a joint statement insisting Epstein "died by suicide" and had "no incriminating 'client list.'" The move sparked a furious reaction from a section of President Donald Trump's Make America Great Again (MAGA) base, which has long believed Epstein was murdered to cover up the participation of prominent figures in sexual abuse. Wyden's letter shows the Trump administration will continue to face intense pressure to further investigate the Epstein case, or release documents it has concerning this, despite its apparent efforts to close down the subject. Addressing Attorney General Bondi in his letter Wyden said he was "convinced that the DOG ignored evidence found in the U.S. Treasury Department's Epstein file," which he said "contains extensive details on the mountains of cash Epstein received from prominent business owners that Epstein used to finance his criminal network." In response to what he termed "the DOJ's lack of thoroughness" Wyden provided Bondi with "a road map with a list of 'follow the money' leads on Jeffrey Epstein." Wyden noted the Senate Finance Committee on February 14 2024 reviewed "thousands of page[s] of Treasury Department files documenting the flow of money in and out of Jeffrey Epstein's accounts" which he concluded "contains significant information on the sources of funding behind Epstein's sex trafficking activities." He said this included documents showing more than 4,725 wire transfers involving Epstein's accounts from 2003 to 2019 totaling $1.08 billion. In his seven-point action plan Wyden said Bondi should "direct DOJ prosecutors and FBI agents to immediately investigate the evidence contained in the Treasury Department records on Epstein" including alleged payments of several hundred million dollars to Epstein from "ultra-wealthy Wall Street financiers." He also said the DOJ should subpoena internal records related by Epstein held by major Western banks. Another of Wyden's points urged the DOG to investigate payments of "hundreds of millions of dollars" via Russian banks that "were correlated to the movement of women or girls around the world." He also called on the department to subpoena documents from the U.S. Virgin Islands regarding a deal giving one of Epstein's associates immunity from prosecution in 2023. Wyden also said several major banks "likely broke the law" by only flagging suspect payments involving Epstein after he had been criminally charged, despite this being a requirement of federal anti-money laundering legislation. Finally Wyden urged the DOJ to "conduct depositions with bankers responsible for overseeing large accounts transacting with Jeffrey Epstein." On Wednesday The Wall Street Journal reported that in May Trump was informed that his name appeared "multiple times" in Epstein documents possessed by the DOJ by Bondi. White House communications director Steven Cheung described the report as "another fake news story." In his letter Wyden said: "Epstein clearly had access to enormous financing to operate his sex trafficking network, and the details on how he got the cash to pay for it are sitting in a Treasury Department filing cabinet." In their joint statement earlier this month the FBI and DOJ said its "systematic review" of Epstein related files "revealed no incriminating 'client list.'" They added: "There was also no credible evidence found that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals as part of his actions. We did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties." Trump is likely to face further pressure to release more documents related to the Epstein case from both congressional Democrats and a section of his own MAGA base. On Tuesday House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, adjourned the lower chamber till September in a move that blocks any imminent vote on releasing the Epstein files. Related Articles Pam Bondi Cancels Speech Over Medical Issue: What We KnowFull List of Republicans Who Voted to Subpoena Epstein Files from DOJWhite House Reacts to Report That Bondi Told Trump He Was in Epstein FilesTrump Admin Request to Unseal Epstein Transcripts Turned Down by Judge 2025 NEWSWEEK DIGITAL LLC.
