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When it comes to combating money laundering, there are glaring weaknesses between the banks and the authorities. According to a report by an international investigative network, this stems from US Treasury documents stemming from a data breach. There are over 2,100 reports of money laundering from 2000 to 2017, the transfers in question totaling hundreds of billions of dollars.
According to this, banks around the world bypass money laundering regulations, they have dealt with high risk clients for years: gangsters, scammers with millions, sanctioned oligarchs. The banks are said to have accepted them as clients despite strict regulations and made transfers in the billions to them. In some cases, financial institutions are said to have reported this delay for years, although they are required to report quickly.
The US online outlet Buzzfeed News has shared the documents with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). 110 media from 88 countries participated in the investigation, in Germany, NDR, WDR, “Süddeutsche Zeitung” and Buzzfeed News. Posts run under the hashtag #FinCENFiles. The drug cartels and corrupt politicians reportedly found it easy to access the international financial market, supported by banks such as Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan and HSBC.
Tax Justice Network, which has been exposing abuses in the fight against international money laundering for years, was not surprised by the reports. However, the data breach offers “a shocking insight into the central role of the US financial system as a machine room for global money laundering,” said Markus Meinzer of the network. But there are still many problems in Germany.
Accusations against Deutsche Bank
Financial institutions are reportedly said to have done business with dubious clients after they had already admitted inadequate preventive measures in the United States or were penalized for money laundering violations. It appears that banks often failed to comply with their own anti-money laundering regulations.
There are specific allegations against Deutsche Bank: According to US investigators, Russian criminals and a money launderer working for terrorist groups have laundered money, among other things, through the Moscow branch of Deutsche Bank. A company attributed to Igor Putin, a cousin of Russian President Vladimir Putin, is also said to have been involved in illicit cash flows. Deutsche Bank stated: “These were criminal acts of individuals who used a model to allow capital to escape from Russia.” The bank had thoroughly investigated these “criminal acts”, had reported them to the supervisory authorities and had pointed out the consequences to the board of directors.
External auditors are said to have witnessed “serious deficiencies”
The current head of Deutsche Bank, Christian Sewing, as head of corporate audit at the time, is also reportedly responsible for ensuring that it has not been noticed before how money launderers could apparently use the bank for stock transactions. The former Sewing department spent several months investigating the stock trading department’s operations in Russia in 2014 and had nothing serious to complain about. Later, however, experts commissioned by Deutsche Bank itself are said to have witnessed “serious shortcomings” in the inspection of the sewing department.
Deutsche Bank denies the direct or indirect involvement of the current CEO in the review of the Moscow business. The seam only submitted the general plan for several hundred tests in 2014. At that time, it had not seen or signed the audit in question and was therefore not responsible for it.
All the banks consulted reportedly said that the fight against money laundering was taken very seriously, that internal measures had been greatly expanded in recent years, that they were cooperating with the authorities and that they were complying with applicable regulations. . The media involved claim, however, that criminals seem to be well aware of the weaknesses of the anti-money laundering system and use them.
