FinCEN files

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
FinCEN files
publication 20th September 2020
Key media BuzzFeed
ICIJ
subjects Money laundering
Internet FinCEN files

As FinCEN files more than 2,100 internal be money laundering -Verdachtsmeldungen the US anti-money laundering authority Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) indicates that in September 2020 published were. The documents documented suspicious banking transactions by major international banks with high-risk customers amounting to 1.69 trillion euros . In doing so, the banks circumvented anti-money laundering mechanisms and thus made corruption and crime possible .

Leaked money laundering reports

The US Treasury Department's leaked documents show how u. a. JP Morgan , Deutsche Bank , HSBC Private Bank (Suisse) , British Standard Chartered , the Bank of New York Mellon and other banks had alleged mafia members , fraudsters and sanctioned oligarchs as customers and made transfers totaling several billions for them . The banks were very reluctant to report these events, in some cases years late. The data was researched and partially published in September 2020 by a network of US and German media.

The documents are thousands of pages of classified money laundering suspicious transaction reports. In Germany, NDR , WDR , “ Süddeutsche Zeitung ” (SZ) were partners of “ Buzzfeed News ”. The research shows how easy it is apparently for money launderers , drug cartels or corrupt politicians to gain access to the international financial market . Despite strict anti-money laundering regulations, the international banks accepted suspected mafiosi , millions of scammers and sanctioned oligarchs as clients and led for these transfers in billions of. They reported these processes only very hesitantly, in some cases years late.

According to the media involved, the “FinCEN Files” consisted of more than 2,100 suspicious transaction reports from 2000 to 2017. The total amount of transactions was around two trillion dollars (1.69 trillion euros ; September 2020).

Involvement of international banks

Some of the world's largest banks, including Deutsche Bank , the largest US bank JPMorgan , Standard Chartered , the Bank of New York Mellon and the Swiss subsidiary of the UK HSBC , would have continued to make profits with dubious customers, even though and after they were in the USA had already been sanctioned for money laundering violations. In numerous cases, the banks undermined their own anti-money laundering standards, for example when checking new customers against a list of suspicious persons worldwide - so-called sanction lists. For example, although they were obliged to do so, they were often unable to clarify who owned funds or assets that had been deposited with them on behalf of letterbox companies .

The leak also brings the Deutsche Bank in need of explanation, comments tagesschau.de . According to US investigators Russian criminals and an agent working for terrorist groups are money launderers money among other things, the Moscow branch of the bank washed have. A company attributed to Igor Putin - a cousin of Russian President Vladimir Putin - is said to have been involved in illicit cash flows. The Deutsche Bank called the processes on request "criminal acts of individuals", which have been extensively investigated, reported to the supervisory authorities and personal consequences drawn up to the board level. Overall, the bank is said to be responsible for 62 percent of the transactions detected.

According to the research, the CEO of Deutsche Bank, Christian Sewing , is jointly responsible for the undetected customers who used Deutsche Bank as a “money laundering facility” and carried out suspicious stock transactions. Before being appointed to the Board of Management, Sewing was Head of Corporate Auditing . From 2014 onwards, his department investigated the processes of suspicious stock trading in Russia. The department researched and approved the Russia deals.

The suspicion also arose that the subsidiary Meinl Bank Antigua , which was sold in 2011 by the Austrian Meinl Bank AG to the Odebrecht Group , among others, could subsequently have been involved in the processing of extensive bribe payments in connection with the Odebrecht corruption scandal Austrian Raiffeisen Bank International .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ tagesschau.de: How the fight against money laundering fails. 20th September 2020
  2. ↑ Research collective reveals weaknesses in the fight against money laundering. FAZ.NET, September 20, 2020
  3. ↑ Emilia Díaz-Struck, Agustin Armendariz, Delphine Reuter, Jelena Cosic, Karrie Kehoe, Mago Torres, Margot Williams, Miguel Fiandor Gutiérrez: From a jumble of secret reports, damning data on big banks and dirty money. In: ICIJ.org ( International Consortium of Investigative Journalists ). September 20, 2020, accessed on September 21, 2020 .
  4. ↑ Mauritius Much, Frederik Obermaier, Meike Schreiber, Jan Willmroth: FinCEN-Files: Leak reveals global failure in the fight against money laundering. In: sueddeutsche.de. September 20, 2020, accessed September 21, 2020 .
  5. ↑ Domestic banks in the Odebrecht scandal. In: ORF.at , September 20, 2020, accessed on September 22, 2020.