On July 8th, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network issued an Advisory to U.S. financial institutions to take reasonable risk-based steps with respect to the potential increased movement of assets that may be related to the current unrest in Syria. U.S. financial institutions are reminded of their requirement to apply enhanced scrutiny for private banking accounts held by or on behalf of senior foreign political figures and to monitor transactions that could potentially represent misappropriated or diverted state assets, proceeds of bribery or other illegal payments, or other public corruption proceeds.