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An analysis of confidential documents produced by several banks in the United States and sent to the federal agency FinCEN shows how large banks have facilitated money laundering, according to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).
“Profits from the deadly drug wars, the embezzled fortunes of developing countries, and the economies won and stolen through the Ponzi pyramid scheme have been able to move in and out of financial institutions, despite warnings from officials themselves. banking “. details the investigation carried out by 108 international media, from 88 countries, including Expresso, released this Sunday.
Information leak at the origin of the investigation
The research, coordinated by the ICIJ consortium, was based on a leaking over 2,100 confidential reports produced by various banks in the United States and which were originally sent to the federal agency FinCEN – Financial Crimes Enforcement Network -, which served as the motto for the name of the project – FinCEN Files.
The reports were obtained by BuzzFeed News, which shared them with International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.
The documents analyzed show that banks JP Morgan, HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank, Deutsche Bank and Bank of New Yor Mellon continued to benefit from powerful and dangerous actors, the investigation notes, noting that this continued even after US entities fined these financial entities for previous failures not to freeze suspicious money accounts.
US agencies don’t sue big banks
According to the 16-month investigation, the main findings of which were released today, the US agencies responsible for enforcing money laundering laws They “rarely” sue big banks that break the law.
It also concludes that the actions of the authorities have little impact on the enormous flow of money that flows through the international financial system.
The research also finds that, in some cases, Banks continued to move illicit funds even after US authorities warned that they would face criminal prosecution if they did not stop doing business with gangsters, scammers or corrupt regimes.
The movements of the largest bank in the US
According to the analysis, JP Morgan, the largest bank based in the United States, transferred money to people and companies linked to the massive withdrawal of public funds in Malaysia, Venezuela and Ukraine, according to FinCEN files.
The bank also processed more than $ 50 million in payments over a decade to Paul Manafort, a former campaign manager for President Donald Trump.
The consortium added that the bank had transferred at least $ 6.9 million in transactions from Manafort in the 14 months after he resigned from the campaign.
“In total, the documents identify more than 2 billion [de dólares] in transactions between 1999 and 2017 that were identified by employees of financial institutions as possible money laundering or other criminal activity ”, he adds.
FinCEN Archives represent less than 0.02% of the more than 12 million reports of suspicious activity that financial institutions submitted to the federal agency between 2011 and 2017.
In a statement issued before the investigation was published, the US Treasury financial police warned that the disclosure of suspicious activity reports was a “crime” that “could have an impact on the national security of the nation.”
The participation of Isabel do Santos and her husband
According to Expresso, the daughter of former Angolan president José Eduardo dos Santos “was the subject of two reports of suspicious activity in 2013 in the United States, one from JP Morgan and the other from Standard Chartered” for “transfers linked to Unitel. And the diamond business. in which Sindika Dokolo was a partner in the Angolan state. “
According to Expresso, the report has dozens of pages and was completed on October 16, 2013: “It is one of the two documents included in the FinCEN Archives that are related to Isabel dos Santos. An employee of the compliance department of JP Morgan Chase Bank, in the United States, sent it the next day to FinCEN, the federal agency responsible for prosecuting and referring suspicions about possible money laundering schemes for possible investigation by law enforcement authorities. “
Although Isabel dos Santos and her father were not clients, “the report sent to FinCEN shows how JP Morgan had been indirectly involved, as a correspondent bank, in transfers related to the Angolan family and state” and “there was a transfer”. , in particular, which drew the attention of the institution’s’ compliance ‘: Sindika Dokolo, Isabel dos Santos’ husband, had in March 2012 sent four million dollars to an account of a Dutch company, Melbourne Investments BV, which went through a corresponding JP Morgan account “.
Now, as the bank “could not identify any other transfer related to Melbourne Investments BV or any public profile on it, this reinforced the possibility that it was a shell company with no commercial purpose,” says the report cited by Expresso.
Within the framework of Luanda leaks, another ICIJ investigation, already had details on that amount and on Melbourne.
This money was used by Sindika Dokolo to become a partner of the Angolan state company Sodiam in a Swiss luxury diamond company, De Grisogono. During this investigation, by the way, all the data collected indicated that the four million dollars would have been the only money that her husband placed in this business, in contrast to the 147 million that the Angolan State placed (although Dokolo argues that he invested a total of 115 million), while in the meantime De Grisogono went bankrupt and Sodiam was left with a debt with the bank that Isabel dos Santos controlled BIC in Angola ”, says Expresso.
Both Isabel dos Santos and her husband have denied, since the Luanda Leaks investigation, any wrongdoing.
“In any case, the complete absence of information on Melbourne Investments led to JP Morgan meeting in the fall of 2013 to gather everything he could about the couple,” he adds.
The report includes a list of 26 entities and people – among them Isabel dos Santos, Sindika and José Eduardo dos Santos – that could be related parties, including Galp in Portugal, where the businesswoman had an indirect shareholding.
“Altogether, the bank identified a total of $ 829 million in transfers between 2005 and 2013 related to the universe of these entities, but left aside the vast majority of them and concentrated on reviewing only a few tens of millions”, He says. the express.
Between July 3, 2006 and March 2, 2012, movements of accounts controlled by Sinkika Dokolo were identified that went through correspondent accounts of foreign banks in JP Morgan.
In addition to the banks EuroBIC, BPI, Deutsche Bank, in Portugal, and BAI, Banco Totta and BESA, in Angola, Isabel dos Santos’ husband at that time had accounts in Cyprus (FMBE Bank), Luxembourg (Banque Pictet), France (Credit du Nord) and Congo (Banque Internationale pour L’Afrique au Congo, BIAC) “, he adds.
According to the report in the FinCEN Archives, US $ 10 million in and out were detected in Dokolo’s accounts during these six years, seven million corresponding to outflows, most of them from EuroBIC, in Portugal, and from the FBME, in Cyprus ”, says the Express.
The compliance officer [que visa que a instituição cumpra as regras] He noted the existence of periodic transfers of 100,000 euros from the FBME to the Banque Pictet in Luxembourg, commenting that ‘the frequency, volume and repetitive value, together with the different bank locations, possibly indicate an attempt to fragment the movement of funds to conceal the overall materiality of the cash flows and prevent them from being disclosed. ‘
According to the document, Most of the money inflows from Isabel dos Santos’ husband were channeled to BESA in Angola and BIAC in Congo..
“Given that these transfers appear to be proportional to the movement of funds that left Angola towards bank havens using non-transparent methods, all of the flows described above are reported as suspicious,” the document reads.
Expresso adds that JP Morgan also reported with potential risk a set of transfers of five million dollars between 2005 and 2011 from BAI in Angola, with the head of the Sagrada Família Clinic, belonging to the Endiama group, an Angolan state prospecting company. and diamond exploration, on behalf of the now defunct BES, held by a company in Portugal.
“The suspicion was, in any case, inconsistent because the hypothesis raised by the compliance officer was that the recipient of the funds, a company that bears the name of Prestação de Serviços, SA, could possibly be Santoro Finance, Prestação de Serviços, SA, one of the companies of the couple Isabel dos Santos and Sindika in Lisbon ”, and“ the reason is that both companies partially coincide in the name ”.
Expresso contacted Sindika Dokolo and her lawyers, but none were available for comment.
However, there is another report – dated October 18, 2013 – sent by Standard Chartered, in New York, to FinCEN, which, although it does not mention the Angolan businesswoman, refers to “a transfer of US $ 18.7 million that occurred seven years earlier, on October 13, 2006, originating from Unitel, the Angolan telecommunications company.” of which Isabel dos Santos is a shareholder and president, and which was destined for BPI in Lisbon, in an account in the name of the company Vidatel Limited, and which had passed through another account in New York.
“The bank’s report is also a bit confusing because it adds a set of transfers originating from accounts of multiple companies under the name Unitel, in several countries, one of which is in fact the Angola-based telecommunications company.” that Isabel Santos is a shareholder ”, he says. “Vidatel is an offshore company registered in the British Virgin Islands, whose beneficiary is Isabel dos Santos and, through which, it owns 25% of Unitel in Angola.”
