FinCEN Files: Key Findings

September 25, 2020
Technical Staff

The following are key findings of the FinCEN Files probe as published by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). We credit the ICIJ for these findings and present them on our blog to share with our constituents to obtain a comprehensive overview of the revelations of such a scandal.

HSBC moved dirty money while on probation for previous laundering lapses
The bank moved millions of dollars for a Ponzi scheme it knew was under investigation in multiple countries
While on probation, HSBC moved more than $900 million for shell company customers linked to alleged criminal networks 1

Gold is a favored vehicle for laundering money. Gold companies are involved in roughly a quarter of all suspect transactions across the FinCEN Files.
In 2014, U.S. investigators recommended that the Treasury Department designate Kaloti, one of the largest gold traders and refiners in the world, a money laundering threat. But the Treasury Department never took action.
Banks reported as suspicious thousands of transactions, worth $9.3 billion, involving Kaloti that occurred between 2007 and 2015. 2

Deutsche Bank moved more than $750 million allegedly siphoned from a Ukrainian bank and into the United States — more than half the money spent on real estate.
Notorious Ukraine oligarch and billionaire business partner directed the buying spree with the help of Miami investors.
Millions moved through a maze of shell companies set up in Cyprus and the Caribbean that concealed the source of the money, internal bank records show 3

A dossier from Orbis Business Intelligence, co-headed by former British spy Christopher Steele, reported that a Barclays Bank client parlayed political donations into military equipment contracts in South Africa.
Barclays Bank moved money for a Ukrainian oligarch even as the bank’s internal watchdogs in New York cited concerns that the funds “could possibly contain illicit proceeds.”
Compliance officers in New York pointed to possible money laundering by a client that Barclays Bank struggled to identify. 4

Venezuela’s “boligarchs” moved vast sums of public money out of the country.
Banks in Europe and the U.S. played a pivotal role in draining Venezuela’s wealth. They reported more than $4.8 billion in suspicious transactions with links to Venezuela, nearly 70% of which involved public money.
Construction mogul Alejandro Ceballos Jiménez secretly routed more than $100 million from public housing contracts to recipients including his family members. 5

FinCEN Files were created by just four shell-company “factories”; all four have Baltic ties and set up shells firms that opened accounts at Danske Estonia or other banks in the region.
Leaked Estonian police files show Danske Estonia bankers in Tallinn secretly ran a side hustle to set up still more U.K. shell companies for their secretive customers.
The signature of a Brussels dentist appears on financial statements of nine U.K. shell companies that failed to disclose $4.1 billion in revenue. He calls it forgery.
Deutsche Bank’s anti-money laundering programs flagged one U.K. shell company a dozen times, but the bank moved $2.6 billion in suspicious payments anyway. 6

Global financial giants have moved a flood of dirty money tied to mobsters, fraudsters and corrupt regimes.
Big banks shift money for people they can’t identify and in many cases fail to report suspect transactions until years after the fact.
Government fines and threats of criminal prosecutions against banks haven’t stopped a tide of illicit payments. 7

Major banks and financial institutions helped move money for fraudsters, drug dealers and allegedly corrupt officials for years after concerns first emerged.
Suspect cash flows hurt real people. A father of four in North Carolina. A mother of two in Ukraine. The parents of a disabled child in Russia.
Banks and other financial actors are not stopping illicit money. That empowers and enriches criminals and autocrats.
Deutsche Bank helped Turkmenistan’s despotic government pay $1.6 million to a Scottish shell company for “confectionery” and Citibank helped a Senegal consulting firm go on a red flag-laden spending spree that ultimately ended in a prison sentence 8