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In the latest leak in recent years on serious irregularities in the global financial system, a journalistic investigation reveals how some of the world’s largest banks have knowingly allowed money laundering transactions. Furthermore, the US authority in the field has consistently failed to take the necessary measures, allowing money laundering, even by organized crime organizations and close to some of the most authoritarian contemporary leaders. The information was revealed tonight by the BBC and Buzzfeed News.
What is FinCEN and how was the information disclosed
FinCEN is the United States Department of the Treasury responsible for combating money laundering and other financial crimes. FinCEN receives documents from banks around the world if the transactions were in dollars, even if they were not in the United States. FinCEN’s stated mission: to warn banks of suspicious transactions and, in some cases, to block wire transfers that raise serious questions. The way in which these suspicions are recorded at FinCEN takes the form of so-called suspicious activity reports (RAS). A bank must complete such a report when it is concerned that one of its clients is involved in illicit business and the report is sent to the authorities.
More than 2,500 FinCEN documents, most of them suspicious activity reports from some of the world’s leading banks, have been leaked to Buzzfeed News. The total number of suspicious transactions that occur in these reports between 1999 and 2017 is approximately $ 2 trillion. Buzzfeed journalists shared the documents with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, who worked together to clarify the information contained in the documents.
What the FinCEN documents show
Almost every major bank in the world is involved in the current scandal. Among the most important revelations of the journalists involved in the investigation are the following:
– HSBC, Britain’s largest bank, allowed the transfer of £ 80 million from UK accounts to Hong Kong accounts, despite being informed by the US authorities that the money came from a complex Ponzi scheme and, therefore, it was, steal.
– JP Morgan allowed a company to transfer no less than a billion dollars through a London account without knowing who the owner was. The bank later concluded that the company was controlled by Semion Mogilevich, a Russian mobster who is on the FBI’s list of the 10 most wanted people in the world.
– Deutsche Bank has moved money from organized crime, terrorism and drug trafficking.
– There is strong evidence that Barclays Bank has allowed a close associate of Vladimir Putin to avoid sanctions imposed by Western governments.
– Great Britain seems to be a real haven for shady companies. According to FinCEN, the UK is a “high risk jurisdiction” given the large number of UK-registered companies that appear in suspicious activity reports.
– The central bank of the United Arab Emirates did not act after being warned that a company in the country was helping Iran avoid international sanctions.
– Standard Chartered has moved money to Arab Bank for more than a decade after Arab Bank clients’ accounts were used to finance terrorist activities.
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