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Laws meant to stop financial crimes instead allow it to flourish. If a bank files a notice that it may be facilitating criminal activity, it's all but immunized from prosecution, effectively allowing them to keep moving the money and collecting the fees.
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/jasonleopold/fincen-files-financial-scandal-criminal-networks
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/jasonleopold/fincen-files-financial-scandal-criminal-networks
Some banks treat suspicious-activity reports (SARs) as a get-out-of-jail-free card, filing SARs about transactions without halting them. Banks have filed numerous reports on the SAME clients, detailing their suspected crimes over YEARS while continuing to profit off them.
By December 2013, JPMorgan Chase had filed at least 8 SARs on accounts & companies controlled by Paul Manafort, flagging >$10 million, according to a #FinCEN research report. Paulie Walnuts was convicted of bank and tax fraud in 2018.
A former senior DOJ lawyer who once led its fraud unit said this makes a mockery of the system. “You can't just file SAR after SAR after SAR without eventually violating the #MoneyLaundering laws. You cut them off and drop them as clients. But you don't keep taking their money."
Investigators for HSBC’s American operations asked colleagues in Hong Kong for the name of the person who owned Trade Leader, a company that had moved >$500 BILLION through the bank in <2 years. The answer they got was “None available.”
"Trade Leader" emerged as an important hub in the so-called #Russian
Laundromat, a sprawling scheme in which wealthy Russians, facilitated by banks, secretly moved their money into the West.
The big banks knowingly profit off #MoneyLaundering.
Laundromat, a sprawling scheme in which wealthy Russians, facilitated by banks, secretly moved their money into the West.The big banks knowingly profit off #MoneyLaundering.
JPMorgan Chase got a deferred prosecution deal. For years, it was the primary bank of the world’s biggest Ponzi schemer, Bernie Madoff. Despite multiple warnings from its own employees, the bank *never* filed a SAR on Madoff and allegedly **collected $500 million in fees**.
JPM had to pay a $1.7 billion fine & promise to improve #MoneyLaundering defenses. After settling, JPM’s own investigators suspected the bank had opened its accounts to a #Russianmobster known for drug trafficking & contract MURDERS, and firms tied to the North Korean regime.
mobster known for drug trafficking & contract MURDERS, and firms tied to the North Korean regime.
Since 2010, at least 18 financial institutions got deferred prosecution agreements for anti– #MoneyLaundering or #sanctions violations. Of those, at least 4 went on to break the law AGAIN and get fined. Twice, the government just renewed the deferred prosecution agreement.
The most powerful way to fix the problem: Arrest the executives whose banks break the law. "The bankers will never learn until you start putting silver bracelets on people. Think of the message you're sending to repeat offenders."~Paul Pelletier, former head of DOJ's fraud unit
"These guys know what they're doing,’’ said Thomas Nollner, a former regulator with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. “You break the law, you should go to jail, period."
EXACTLY. Bank robbers get arrested and imprisoned.
Why not the bankers who rob?
EXACTLY. Bank robbers get arrested and imprisoned.
Why not the bankers who rob?
