Worrisome leaked report: incomprehensible amount of dirty money flows into the international banking system

$ 2,000 trillion is just the tip of the iceberg

The more than 2,000 documents sent to Fincen were sent to Buzzfeed by an informant; the news agency shared them with an international organization of investigative journalists. As they write, the reports provide an excellent picture of just how weak the US money laundering filter system still is. while billions of drug lords, pyramid schemes, sanctioned countries continue to flow through American banks.

The report also reveals that Fincen generally does not immediately force the bank of a customer who participates in suspicious money laundering activity to stop that activity. If a case still ends up punishing a customer or bank for money laundering, in many cases, banks continue to launder money, Buzzfeed also found JPMorgan Chase, HSBC, Citigroup, Standard Chartered, Deutsche Bank and Bank of New York Mellon guilty.

Buzzfeed writes that many financial institutions treat these reports as a kind of “you can get out of jail” card. In other words, there are banks that hope that if they report any suspicious money laundering to Fincen, they can continue to operate with open arms, since they took all the necessary measures towards the authorities.

In total, banks send around 2 million money laundering reports (SARs) to Fincen each year, as indicated in current reports. and the total amount is about $ 2 billion. Since only a small fraction of the total report has been made public, it is feared that the figures released from the now leaked reports are just the tip of the iceberg. By the way, the fact that banks report a suspicious money laundering transaction does not necessarily mean that a crime is being committed. Nonetheless, there are some particularly difficult stories in which it can be said that banks could have done more to prevent inadvertent involvement in crime aid.

The Standard Chartered was able to launder money for the Taliban

Reports show that British Standard Chartered was moving money on behalf of a Dubai-based company called the Zarooni Exchange, which later turned out to be one of the Taliban laundries. The Buzzfeed article does not reflect whether Standard Chartered conducted financial transactions before or after the company was revealed to be a money launderer, in any case, it is almost certain that the Taliban were transferred voluntarily or involuntarily through the company. .

He was not interested in HSBC being used by pyramid players

The Hong Kong branch of British-Chinese HSBC had millions of dollars through a company called WCM777, which turned out to be a pyramid scheme. HSBC conducted around $ 15 million in transactions on behalf of WCM777 even after authorities in three US states halted the pyramid scheme and widely warned the public that it was a pyramid scheme. The WCM777 operator bought two golf courses, a palace, a 39.8-carat diamond for the stolen money and also acquired mining rights in Sierra Leone.

The criminal surrounded by Interpol was a client of the big American banks

Viktor Krapunov was the mayor of the largest Kazakh city and former capital, Almaty, Interpol issued an arrest warrant against him for corruption and the politician fled to Switzerland. He tasked the Krapunov family with laundering corruption money, with the help of major US banks, including Bank of America, Citi, JP Morgan, and the American Express card company.

Putin’s man took out the money through Barclays

Vladimir Putin’s oligarch Arkady Rotenberg was sanctioned by the EU and the US in 2014; The billionaire laundered money through shop windows through British Barclays until 2016. The BBC, which is investigating the report, said the British bank had heard of the fraud and closed Rotenberg’s accounts, but that the oligarch had escaped attention. of financial inspectors for two years.

Deutsche Bank again

For those who have followed the Deutsche Bank run in recent years, it is perhaps not surprising that more than half (!) Of the suspicious $ 2 billion transaction has been reported at this bank. Between 1999 and 2017, around $ 1.3 trillion in potential money laundering money passed through Germany’s largest bank.

Some of the money was linked to a fraudulent Russian company, Financial Bridge, which was targeted by Russian authorities a few years ago for money laundering linked to drug and human trafficking. Reports also show that Deutsche Bank management was aware of the securities trading fraud network that took place within the bank, at the institution’s Moscow office.

At Deutsche Bank, by the way, these scandals have already had consequences: since the crisis, the German financial institution has already paid $ 18 billion in fines and management has repeatedly promised that they will change.

Dubai has laundered Iran’s money

Between 2011 and 2012, a company registered in the United Arab Emirates, Gunes General Trading, laundered around $ 142 million in a clean Iran, which was already subject to US sanctions. Standard Chartered had just warned the UAE central bank that something was wrong, but the UAE central bank had done nothing for years; It lasted until 2014, when the company was liquidated.

Trump’s man was on target again

Paul Manafort, who coordinated President Donald Trump’s 2016 election campaign, was convicted of tax evasion and fraud a few years after the president’s election. Recently leaked documents reveal that US banks have suspected money laundering from Manafort since 2012, which has moved hundreds of millions of dollars in transactions through Cypriot exhibition companies through JP Morgan.

What is the authority doing?

A few days before the articles on the leaked reports were published, Fincen announced that the current anti-money laundering system is not effective enough and is undergoing significant and comprehensive transformations.

Fincen called the leaked reports dangerous, hampering ongoing investigations and endangering the personal safety of journalists.

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