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Banks supporting criminals

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Was reading the Investigative Journalists website and noticed a story they ran last year. So how do we stop banks from supporting criminal, terrorists etc?

Global banks defy U.S. crackdowns by serving oligarchs, criminals and terrorists


The FinCEN Files show trillions in tainted dollars flow freely through major banks, swamping a broken enforcement system.

Secret U.S. government documents reveal that JPMorgan Chase, HSBC and other big banks have defied money laundering crackdowns by moving staggering sums of illicit cash for shadowy characters and criminal networks that have spread chaos and undermined democracy around the world.

The records show that five global banks — JPMorgan, HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank, Deutsche Bank and Bank of New York Mellon — kept profiting from powerful and dangerous players even after U.S. authorities fined these financial institutions for earlier failures to stem flows of dirty money.

U.S. agencies responsible for enforcing money laundering laws rarely prosecute megabanks that break the law, and the actions authorities do take barely ripple the flood of plundered money that washes through the international financial system.

In some cases the banks kept moving illicit funds even after U.S. officials warned them they’d face criminal prosecutions if they didn’t stop doing business with mobsters, fraudsters or corrupt regimes.

JPMorgan, the largest bank based in the United States, moved money for people and companies tied to the massive looting of public funds in Malaysia, Venezuela and Ukraine, the leaked documents reveal.

The bank moved more than $1 billion for the fugitive financier behind Malaysia’s 1MDB scandal, the records show, and more than $2 million for a young energy mogul’s company that has been accused of cheating Venezuela’s government and helping cause electrical blackouts that crippled large parts of the country.

JPMorgan also processed more than $50 million in payments over a decade, the records show, for Paul Manafort, the former campaign manager for President Donald Trump. The bank shuttled at least $6.9 million in Manafort transactions in the 14 months after he resigned from the campaign amid a swirl of money laundering and corruption allegations spawning from his work with a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine.

 


Rewards and risks​


Why do banks move suspect money? Because it’s profitable.

Banks can pad their bottom lines with the fees they collect as money spins through the webs of accounts often maintained by corrupt users of the financial system. JPMorgan, for example, scored an estimated half a billion dollars in revenues by serving as the chief banker to Bernie Madoff, according to filings in the bankruptcy case spawned by the collapse of his multi-billion-dollar Ponzi scheme.

Dealing with shady customers does carry risks.

JPMorgan paid $88.3 million in 2011 to settle regulators’ claims that it had violated economic sanctions against Iran and other countries under U.S. embargoes. Treasury officials hit the bank with a “cease and desist” order in 2013 that described “systemic deficiencies” in its anti-money-laundering efforts, noting the bank had “failed to identify significant volumes of suspicious activity.”

Then, in January 2014, the bank paid $2.6 billion to U.S. agencies to settle investigations over its role in Madoff’s scheme. JPMorgan posted profits of more than double that amount in just that quarter on its way to nearly $22 billion in profits for the year. Madoff pleaded guilty and is serving a 150-year sentence in federal prison.

JPMorgan continued, after those enforcement actions, to move money for people involved in alleged financial crimes, the FinCEN Files show.

 
Is this the subject of Four Corners tonight ?

I believe the 4 Corners story will be covering The Pandora papers. That focus is on the lawyers and accountants who set up the shell companies that hide ownership of assets.

The story I am referencing above focuses on the transfer of funds in and out of these accounts by the banks on behalf of their clients. In many cases the clients are the range of official and unofficial criminals at large.
 
Honestly don't care about money laundering. A lot of it goes to poorer nations.
Indeed !! Absolutely. Just pass on your financial details and I'll make absolutely sure it goes to a poorer nation. :laugh::laugh:
Cross my heart. You clearly don't need it.:speechless:
________________________________________________________________________________

Anyone actually read the story ?
 
Indeed !! Absolutely. Just pass on your financial details and I'll make absolutely sure it goes to a poorer nation. :laugh::laugh:
Cross my heart. You clearly don't need it.:speechless:
________________________________________________________________________________

Anyone actually read the story ?
Reality is large companies shifting money legally is a bigger problem
 
Reality is large companies shifting money legally is a bigger problem :cautious::cautious: Says who ? And so what ?:(

You are a bit of a queer fish.o_O Obviously it takes all sorts. So I suppose summarily dismissing the continual financing of international drug cartels, terrorists, scores of corrupt business tycoons and monumental conmen by major banks as not imprtant is just your considered opinion because you reckon there are other "bigger problems" and your a bit jaded by it all ?
 
You are a bit of a queer fish.o_O Obviously it takes all sorts. So I suppose summarily dismissing the continual financing of international drug cartels, terrorists, scores of corrupt business tycoons and monumental conmen by major banks as not imprtant is just your considered opinion because you reckon there are other "bigger problems" and your a bit jaded by it all ?
How long has it been going on and yet it still remains the same.
Corrupt regimes that the CIA enjoy keeping afloat. Did you know the Yanks pretty much protected the opium poppies in Afghanistan?
The point is its a very imperfect world.
Government corruption and misuse of tax revenue is a far bigger dea imo. Billions often wasted on bs. So no I don't really care about money laundering.

The truth of the matter is you can't stop it. And with the rise of China you will have even less chances.
 
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