Updated: September 22, 2020 5:21:22 pm
FinCEN’s files contain a 20-page “intelligence assessment” on the mirror network and list 54 shell companies that they say moved billions of dollars annually from Russia through European stock markets to other jurisdictions starting in 2011.
Adani Gobal PTE, the global arm of the Singapore-based Adani Group, emerges in a group of Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) submitted to FinCEN, the main US financial watchdog, which alerts on the issue of Shell companies and their use in money laundering activities in the tax haven of Seychelles.
These HE, investigated by The Indian Express, are part of the Bank of New York Mellon (BNYM) monitoring of suspicious transactions involving various companies.
One lists “suspicious” transactions to and from “shell-like” entities in Seychelles between 2005 and 2014 with total remittances of $ 6.24 billion. The following year, another SAR filed by BNYM reported 1,241 new transactions worth $ 105 million made in January alone.
Along with various other transactions for companies located in Switzerland, Hong Kong and Russia, the SARs have details of the transactions between Thionville Financier Ltd, an investment company with addresses in Mahe and Victoria in Seychelles, with Adani Global PTE.
The records show details of various bank transfers totaling $ 14.46 million received by the Adani firm from this Seychelles entity.
When asked about these transactions, a spokesperson for Adani Group told The Indian Express: “Our business transactions with Thionville Financier Limited are completely legitimate and have been fully disclosed to the authorities in the respective jurisdiction.”
Interestingly, in its SAR filed in 2013, BNYM reported that the Thionville Financier Ltd website was “under construction.” Seven years later, your website ad remains the same.
Records investigated by The Indian Express show that four wire transfers totaling $ 5.6 million were made to Adani Golbal PTE’s trust and retention account at ICICI Bank in Singapore in July 2013. In its SAR, BNYM underscored that, In addition to the shell nature of the sender (Thionville Financier Ltd), the wire transfers appeared “suspicious” as they were sent in “high dollar amounts”. (Round dollar amounts refer to transactions rounded to exactly one hundred or one thousand, such as 50,000 or 100,000).
Another set of remittances from Thionville to Adani Global PTE corresponds to June 2013 and the same banking channels have been used. This time, within a week, Thionville sent two cables to the Adani company for a total of $ 2.8 million.
The most recent transactions between the two companies, marked in a SAR, correspond to January 2015, when Thionville, using his Standard Chartered Bank account, sent three transfers to Adani Global PTE for a total of $ 6.06 million.
On shell companies located in places like the Seychelles, the SAR noted that they were “easy to form, inexpensive to operate and structured in a way designed to hide the transactional details of the entities. The use of phantom entities provides an opportunity for foreign or national entities to move money through electronic transfers, either directly or through a correspondent banking relationship without the owners of the entity having to reveal their true identities … “
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