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NEW YORK (REUTERS) – Several global banks moved large sums of allegedly illicit funds over a period of nearly two decades, despite red flags about the origin of the money, BuzzFeed and other outlets reported on Sunday (Sept. 20), citing confidential documents submitted. by banks to the United States government.
The reports were based in part on documents, called Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs), filed by banks and other financial firms with the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).
The SARs, which reportedly exceeded 2,100, were obtained by BuzzFeed News and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and other media organizations.
In total, the ICIJ reported that the files contained information on transactions worth more than 2 trillion dollars (2.7 trillion Singapore dollars) between 1999 and 2017, which the internal compliance departments of financial institutions identified as suspicious. SARs themselves are not necessarily proof of wrongdoing.
Five global banks appeared most frequently in the documents: HSBC, JPMorgan, Deutsche Bank, Standard Chartered and Bank of New York Mellon, the ICIJ reported.
A bank has a maximum of 60 days to file SARs after the initial detection date of a reportable transaction, according to the Treasury Department’s Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. The ICIJ report said that in some cases banks did not report suspicious transactions until years after they had been processed.
The SARs also showed that banks often moved funds for companies that were registered in offshore havens, such as the British Virgin Islands, and did not know the ultimate owner of the account, according to the report.
Among the types of transactions highlighted in the report: funds processed by JPMorgan for potentially corrupt individuals and companies in Venezuela, Ukraine and Malaysia; money from a Ponzi scheme that moves through HSBC; and money linked to a Ukrainian billionaire prosecuted by Deutsche Bank.
In a statement to Reuters, HSBC said that “all the information provided by the ICIJ is historical.”
The bank said that in 2012, “HSBC embarked on a multi-year journey to review its ability to fight financial crime in more than 60 jurisdictions.”
Standard Chartered said in a statement to Reuters: “We take our responsibility to fight financial crime extremely seriously and have invested substantially in our compliance programs.”
BNY Mellon told Reuters it could not comment on specific SARs. “We fully comply with all applicable laws and regulations and assist the authorities in the important work they do,” the bank said.
JPM did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but said in a statement to BuzzFeed that “thousands of employees and hundreds of millions of dollars are dedicated to helping support national security and law enforcement efforts.”
Deutsche Bank said in a statement on Sunday that “to the extent that the information referred to by the ICIJ is derived from RAS, it should be noted that this is information that banks identify and proactively send to governments in compliance with the law “.
FinCEN said in a statement on its website on Sept. 1 that it was aware that various media outlets intended to publish a series of articles based on the illegally disclosed RAS, as well as other documents, and said the “Unauthorized disclosure of RAS is a crime. It may affect the national security of the United States.”
Representatives for the U.S. Treasury did not immediately respond to an email for comment on Sunday.
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