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Kolomoisky, Klyuev and Firtash became involved in the leak of the United States Treasury. ICIJ collage graphics
The world is in a fever with a new financial scandal called FinCen.
The world media published data on a large-scale leak from the United States Treasury. We are talking about suspicious financial transactions around the world.
This story also touched Ukraine. And also Russia and its European partners, who helped Moscow bypass sanctions. And in the West there are reasons to be exposed.
This is a scandal on the level of the “heavenly papers” and “Panama Papers”. It is true, with the difference that these leaks were from one or two companies, and the current one affects banks and their VIP clients around the world.
He resolved the new compromising evidence and its consequences.
What is FinCen
This is the name of the unit of the United States Department of the Treasury that monitors financial fraud. Banks provide you with information on all suspicious transactions and around the world. We are talking about transactions that are made in dollars.
They do not have to be proven criminals. But if there are doubts about a financial transaction, the bank is required to submit to the US Treasury a special document called a Suspicious Activity Report, or SAR.
Sample Suspicious Activity Report or SAR
These SARs from 2000 to 2017 became the subject of a leak. They were published by several western publications at the same time. In other words, we are facing a large-scale information leak from the United States Department of the Treasury. And at the same time a huge group of journalists, which speaks of a huge amount of information.
The documents show that US banks have been conducting questionable transactions for years, serving criminals, helping to launder money and avoiding penalties. This is confirmed by the fact that banks have repeatedly submitted reports to the same dubious companies, continuing to cooperate with them and without blocking funds.
It should be noted that US banks do not appear in the leaks either, but the US Treasury apparently receives information about them through reports from its financial institutions doing business with non-residents.
Big scandals
The epicenter of such deals was called the United Kingdom – companies in its jurisdiction account for the majority of doubtful SARs.
And it is already becoming clear that one of the main targets of the attack by the organizers of the leak was the German Deutsche Bank. It is said that he transferred money to terrorists, drug traffickers and organized crime figures. Besides the Russians who are under American sanctions.
The BuzzFeed publication, which analyzed the documents, tells, with reference to insiders, the story of how Bank of America employees came to Deutsche Bank’s London office to discuss how to work with Russians. After that, a Deutsche Bank employee allegedly interrupted the meeting and asked the American bankers to leave.
According to the documents, Deutsche Bank “deliberately ignored” information about suspicious transactions with persons sanctioned or involved in various investigations.
In particular, Deutsche Bank participated in 47 transfers for almost $ 430 million with the participation of Surgutnetegaz. This happened after the company was sanctioned, from the beginning of March to mid-May 2015.
But the bank worked more closely with Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska. From 2003 to 2017, the bank serviced the accounts of its companies for $ 11 billion. Since 2016, the bank itself has filed a suspicious transaction report for $ 57 million. But he continued to serve Deripaska’s accounts.
The “Russian trail” runs through the entire investigation. The company of Vladimir Putin’s friend Arkady Rotenberg is said to have spent $ 77 million through Barclays Bank, part of which was following the imposition of US sanctions against him in 2014. In particular, he bought a painting of the surrealist. Belgian Rene Magritte for $ 7.5 million.
In addition, American banks register four Russian banks, which appear more frequently than others in “suspicious” transactions: Sberbank, Alfabank, Rosbank and Primorye.
There were also charges of a purely criminal nature. HSBC has allowed proven financial scammers to execute multi-million dollar deals around the world, and JP Morgan has served a billion dollar company affiliated with a wanted criminal.
This bank is also mentioned in the context of Ukraine. JP Morgan has transferred money for individuals and companies involved in the misuse of public funds in Malaysia, Venezuela and Ukraine (to which we will return later).
It is also interesting that in the field of view of the American jurisdiction, the transactions of even those banks that appear not to be entirely American are trapped: for example, the Central Bank of the UAE, which, as it turned out, also reports to the Treasury. from the USA …
FinCen and Ukraine
As already mentioned, various editorial offices and journalistic communities received the data set. One of them – the investigative organization ICIJ – analyzed the “Ukrainian” part of the new leak.
They are the oligarchs Igor Kolomoisky and Dmitry Firtash, as well as Andrei Klyuev, former head of the Yanukovych presidential administration.
Kolomoisky. Suspicious transactions: $ 308 million.
In 2012-2017, the American Bank of New York Mellon transferred $ 263 million to the oligarchy companies. There are likely more, but it was these funds that were suspect.
A record amount of 202 million was credited to the accounts of the Cypriot Privatbank branch of Louis Dreyfus Commodities Asia (Singapore).
To receive this money, the Cypriot Privatbank used an account at Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas in 2017.
Another New York bank transferred money to the offshore company Claresholm Marketing Ltd, located in the Virgin Islands. This firm is involved in a money laundering case that the United States opened against Kolomoisky. Let us remind you that you are suspected of diverting funds from Privatbank and buying property in the United States for them.
Deutsche Bank also transferred money to the accounts of the Kolomoisky UIA company: we are talking about 215 million dollars for 2015 and 2016. This payment seemed suspicious due to the fact that Kolomoisky is a “politically exposed person”.
Klyuev… Klyuev has a total of $ 244 million in suspicious transactions.
The Ukrainian politician reportedly worked with the US bank JPMorgan Chase. It went through $ 230 million, which were transferred by the British company NoviRex Sales LLP, belongs to Klyuev.
The translations ran from 2010 to 2015. NoviRex paid money to Yanukovych’s American consultant, Paul Manafort. He later became Trump’s campaign manager and went to jail for tax evasion, including income received in Ukraine.
The ICIJ also says that FinCEN contains data on the corruption schemes of the former head of the Presidential Administration. We are talking about transactions through offshore companies, in particular the purchase of Tantalit Ltd, which in turn owned Yanukovych’s residence in Mezhyhirya.
Firtash… Suspicious transactions were accounted for two and a half billion dollars.
Dmitry Firtash’s company, Bothli Trade AG, is said to have transferred 78,000 to Standard Chartered Bank on behalf of the Indian Periyasami Sunderaling, who, according to the US investigation, helped Firtash pay bribes in India in the interest of a mining transaction.
At the same time, Firtash himself and his lawyers call these accusations falsified by American special services for political purposes (you can read more about this here).
What is the threat of a new leak?
Notably, the leaks obviously affected those whom the United States practically officially considers “the enemy.” And they are constantly repressed by sanctions or criminal cases.
In other words, the drain was most likely organized by the US government itself. And now you will have a reason to introduce new restrictions in the banking sector. For example, to complicate fund transfers Washington combines suspects or, for example, have a politically unreliable origin.
At the same time, last week, the US Treasury announced a review of programs to combat money laundering. The British have recently published similar plans: They are going to reform the business information gathering system.
And suddenly a large-scale leak appears, justifying these steps.
In purely political terms, a new scandal could also restart the Russiagate in the United States, which was initially always used by Donald Trump’s opponents (there is a lot about Russia at FinCen).
It is also interesting that the scandal unfolds just before the US elections, which are just over a month away. But it is still difficult to say what will change the FinCen documents. It depends on what else is in the near future among the hundreds and thousands of leaked documents.
