What is deemed to be an “explosive international financial investigation of historic scale” led by BuzzFeed News and ICIJ was released this evening.
BBC reports “Leaked documents involving about $2tn of transactions have revealed how some of the world’s biggest banks have allowed criminals to move dirty money around the world. They also show how Russian oligarchs have used banks to avoid sanctions that were supposed to stop them getting their money into the West.It’s the latest in a string of leaks over the past five years that have exposed secret deals, money laundering and financial crime. The operation involved over 400 reporters from 88 countries. The leak is expected to expose trillions in banking secrets.”
Buzzfeed reports “ A huge trove of secret government documents reveals for the first time how the giants of Western banking move trillions of dollars in suspicious transactions, enriching themselves and their shareholders while facilitating the work of terrorists, kleptocrats, and drug kingpins. And the US government, despite its vast powers, fails to stop it. Today, the FinCEN Files — thousands of “suspicious activity reports” and other US government documents — offer an unprecedented view of global financial corruption, the banks enabling it, and the government agencies that watch as it flourishes. BuzzFeed News has shared these reports with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and more than 100 news organizations in 88 countries.
These documents, compiled by banks, shared with the government, but kept from public view, expose the hollowness of banking safeguards, and the ease with which criminals have exploited them. Profits from deadly drug wars, fortunes embezzled from developing countries, and hard-earned savings stolen in a Ponzi scheme were all allowed to flow into and out of these financial institutions, despite warnings from the banks’ own employees. “
In a tweet, the ICIJ said that the leak exposes how money looted from government treasuries, scammed from pensioners, and generated through drug sales has been hidden across the world.
There are $2 trillion in suspicious transactions being disclosed.
Earlier in September, the US Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) is aware that various media outlets intend to publish a series of articles based on unlawfully disclosed Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs), as well as other sensitive government documents, from several years ago. As FinCEN has stated previously, the unauthorized disclosure of SARs is a crime that can impact the national security of the United States, compromise law enforcement investigations, and threaten the safety and security of the institutions and individuals who file such reports.
FinCEN has referred this matter to the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Inspector General.
UPDATE via BBC / BuzzFeed
HSBC allowed fraudsters to transfer millions of dollars around the world even after it had learned of their scam, leaked secret files show.
Britain’s biggest bank moved the money through its US business to HSBC accounts in Hong Kong in 2013 and 2014.
Its role in the $80m (£62m) fraud is detailed in a leak of documents – banks’ “suspicious activity reports” – that have been called the FinCEN Files.
HSBC says it has always met its legal duties on reporting such activity.
The files show the investment scam, known as a Ponzi scheme, started soon after the bank was fined $1.9bn (£1.4bn) in the US over money laundering. It had promised to clamp down on these sorts of practices.
Lawyers for duped investors say the bank should have acted sooner to close the fraudsters’ accounts.
The documents leak includes a series of other revelations – such as the suggestion one of the biggest banks in the US may have helped a notorious mobster to move more than $1bn.
The United Arab Emirates’ central bank failed to act on warnings about a local firm which was helping Iran to evade sanctions, the BBC has found.
Leaked documents show Dubai-based Gunes General Trading processed $142m (£110m) in suspicious transactions through the UAE financial system in 2011 and 2012.
The activity was flagged by a British bank, but the firm was able to continue using local financial institutions.
In 2016, the US said it was involved in a major sanctions-busting scheme.
The Central Bank of the UAE did not respond to the BBC’s request for comment.
Gunes General Trading has been wound up within the last two years. The BBC has been unable to reach anyone for comment.
One of Vladimir Putin’s closest friends may have used Barclays Bank in London to launder money and dodge sanctions, leaked documents suggest.
Billionaire Arkady Rotenberg has known the Russian president since childhood.
Financial restrictions, or sanctions, were imposed on Mr Rotenberg by the US and the EU in 2014, which means Western banks could face serious consequences for doing business with him.
Barclays says it met all its legal and regulatory duties.
A leak of confidential files – banks’ “suspicious activity reports” – reveal how companies believed to be controlled by Mr Rotenberg kept the secret accounts.
