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The leaked documents involving transactions worth more than $ 2 trillion show how some of the world’s largest banks have helped their clients launder money and avoid penalties.
The reports cover transactions for the period 2000-2017.
The documents also show how the Russian oligarchs used the banks to avoid sanctions that would have prevented them from injecting their money into the West.
FinCEN’s files are the latest in a series of leaks over the next five years that have uncovered secret deals, money laundering and financial crimes.
The FinCEN files
FinCEN’s archives represent more than 2,500 documents. Most of them are files that banks sent to US authorities between 2000 and 2017.
These documents are one of the best kept secrets in the international banking system. Banks use them to report suspicious customer behavior; this is not evidence of wrongdoing or crime.
Why FinCEN?
FinCEN, or Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, is an American financial crime network.
Any suspicious transactions, in US dollars, must be submitted to FinCEN, even if they are made outside of the United States.
These suspicions are reported through Suspicious Activity Reports (RAS). For its part, the bank fills out a special form, which it sends to the authorities.
Financial institutions must ensure that they do not help clients launder money or move funds in ways that break the rules.
By law, bank employees need to know who their customers are; It is not enough to present RAS and continue taking dirty money from customers while they wait for the authorities to solve the problem. If they have evidence of criminal activity, they should stop transferring money.
Disclosures
HSBC (HSBC) has helped clients transfer millions of stolen dollars around the world, even after learning from US investigators that the scheme was a fraud.
JP Morgan has allowed a company to transfer more than a billion dollars through a London account without knowing the owner. The bank later found out that the company could be owned by a mobster on the FBI’s 10 most wanted list.
Testthat one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s closest associates used the Barclays Bank in London to avoid sanctions that would prevent him from using Western financial services. Part of the money was used to buy works of art.
The husband of a woman who donated £ 1.7 million of the UK’s ruling Conservative Party, was secretly funded by a Russian oligarch with close ties to President Putin.
More than 3,000 British companies they are mentioned in FinCEN reports, many times more than in any other country. Due to the number of SARs registered, FinCEN’s intelligence department has identified the UK as “high jurisdictional risk”.
The Central Bank of the UAE it has not responded to warnings about a local company helping Iran evade sanctions.
German bank has helped scammers divert money for organized crime, terrorism and drug trafficking. 62% of all suspicious reports submitted to FinCEN relate to the German bank.
Standard chartered has been transferring cash to the Arab Bank for more than a decade; Client accounts at the Jordanian branch of the bank have been used to finance terrorism.
What distinguishes the FinCEN case from the rest?
FinCEN’s case documents come from various banks around the world. They flag suspicious activities involving companies and individuals. They also raise questions such as: “Why didn’t the banks, which noticed suspicious actions, react to the situation?”
FinCEN is the latest in a series of financial fraud disclosures:
Paradise Papers, 2017 – Documents from offshore legal services provider Appleby and corporate services provider Estera are leaked.
The two companies work together under the Appleby name, but in 2016 Estera spun off and became independent. The companies have disclosed offshore financial transactions to politicians, celebrities and business leaders.
Panama Papers 2016 – Leaked documents from the Mossack Fonseca law firm revealed how the wealthy use offshore tax regimes to their advantage.
Swiss leaks since 2015 – Documents from the Swiss private bank HSBC show how it uses the country’s bank secrecy laws to help clients avoid paying taxes.
2014 LuxLeaks It contains documents from the accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, which show that large companies use tax transactions in Luxembourg to pay smaller amounts.
