Widening Russia Money Laundering Scandal Hits Euro
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Posted On: 03/05/2019 7:20:00 AM
Widening Russia Money Laundering Scandal Hits Europe Bank Shares
So many reasons the US market can tank again
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-...nd=premium
A money-laundering scandal involving Western financial institutions and the former Soviet Union widened, sending shares of banks lower across the continent.
Raiffeisen Bank International AG led declines, dropping as much as 11 percent after Bill Browder’s Hermitage Fund filed a report to Austrian prosecutors saying the bank helped launder funds that originated in Russian criminal activity. Dutch banks fell after a report that the three largest were used by a group labeled the Troika Laundromat to move cash from Russia.
Almost daily revelations are exposing the breadth of suspicious activity that has enmeshed banks across the continent. With investigations under way in Baltic members of the European Union that once were Soviet states, the Nordic countries, the U.S., the U.K. and elsewhere, it may be months before the full extent is uncovered.
A picture is forming of Nordic banks that, often via their Baltic units, became hubs for Russian criminals who channeled funds to the West. Nordea Bank Abp allegedly handled about 700 million euros ($793 million) in potentially dirty money, some of it linked to the death of Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, according to Finnish broadcaster YLE on Monday.
Nordea Chief Risk Officer Julie Galbo said in an interview late on Monday that much of the allegations were already known publicly and the bank was trying to establish whether any were new. Any suspicious behavior would be reported to the authorities, she said.
Separately, the Guardian reported in the U.K. that an estimated $4.6 billion was sent to Europe and the U.S. from a Russian-operated network of 70 offshore companies with Lithuanian accounts. The newspaper cited data on banking transactions obtained by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, or OCCRP, and 15min.lt, a Lithuanian website. The Guardian said there’s no suggestion that the end recipients of funds were aware of the original source of the money.
The two reports are part of a broader OCCRP investigation into the Troika Laundromat. It’s the fourth such scheme that the group has uncovered with the help of news media. The others were the Proxy Platform, the Russian Laundromat, and the Azerbaijani Laundromat.
Accounts at the three largest Dutch banks were used by the Troika Laundromat to move cash from Russia, according to Dutch magazine De Groene Amsterdammer, which is part of the OCCRP journalist group. About 43 million euros were paid to the Rabobank account of Dutch yacht builder Heesen for construction of two boats, the newspaper said, while approximately 190 million euros went through bank accounts at an ABN Amro unit that later became part of Royal Bank of Scotland. The banks declined to comment.
ABN Amro fell as much as 5 percent before paring losses. ING Groep NV declined as much as 2.8 percent.
Raiffeisen Bank International’s predecessor RZB helped launder money linked to Russian tax fraud, according to a report Hermitage Fund filed to Austrian white-collar prosecutors. Browder, an investor who has spent the past decade building cases against banks for laundering following the death in a Russian jail of Magnitsky, said more allegations will unfold.
More than $889 million went from accounts at Deutsche Bank to accounts of the “Troika Laundromat” between 2003 and 2017, German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung -- also part of the OCCRP group -- also reported. Deutsche Bank, in written comments, said it always cooperates with authorities and regulators worldwide and said that as a correspondent bank it only has limited access to information about the customers of the respondent bank.
Germany’s largest lender fell as much as 1.4 percent.
So many reasons the US market can tank again
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-...nd=premium
A money-laundering scandal involving Western financial institutions and the former Soviet Union widened, sending shares of banks lower across the continent.
Raiffeisen Bank International AG led declines, dropping as much as 11 percent after Bill Browder’s Hermitage Fund filed a report to Austrian prosecutors saying the bank helped launder funds that originated in Russian criminal activity. Dutch banks fell after a report that the three largest were used by a group labeled the Troika Laundromat to move cash from Russia.
Almost daily revelations are exposing the breadth of suspicious activity that has enmeshed banks across the continent. With investigations under way in Baltic members of the European Union that once were Soviet states, the Nordic countries, the U.S., the U.K. and elsewhere, it may be months before the full extent is uncovered.
A picture is forming of Nordic banks that, often via their Baltic units, became hubs for Russian criminals who channeled funds to the West. Nordea Bank Abp allegedly handled about 700 million euros ($793 million) in potentially dirty money, some of it linked to the death of Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, according to Finnish broadcaster YLE on Monday.
Nordea Chief Risk Officer Julie Galbo said in an interview late on Monday that much of the allegations were already known publicly and the bank was trying to establish whether any were new. Any suspicious behavior would be reported to the authorities, she said.
Separately, the Guardian reported in the U.K. that an estimated $4.6 billion was sent to Europe and the U.S. from a Russian-operated network of 70 offshore companies with Lithuanian accounts. The newspaper cited data on banking transactions obtained by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, or OCCRP, and 15min.lt, a Lithuanian website. The Guardian said there’s no suggestion that the end recipients of funds were aware of the original source of the money.
The two reports are part of a broader OCCRP investigation into the Troika Laundromat. It’s the fourth such scheme that the group has uncovered with the help of news media. The others were the Proxy Platform, the Russian Laundromat, and the Azerbaijani Laundromat.
Accounts at the three largest Dutch banks were used by the Troika Laundromat to move cash from Russia, according to Dutch magazine De Groene Amsterdammer, which is part of the OCCRP journalist group. About 43 million euros were paid to the Rabobank account of Dutch yacht builder Heesen for construction of two boats, the newspaper said, while approximately 190 million euros went through bank accounts at an ABN Amro unit that later became part of Royal Bank of Scotland. The banks declined to comment.
ABN Amro fell as much as 5 percent before paring losses. ING Groep NV declined as much as 2.8 percent.
Raiffeisen Bank International’s predecessor RZB helped launder money linked to Russian tax fraud, according to a report Hermitage Fund filed to Austrian white-collar prosecutors. Browder, an investor who has spent the past decade building cases against banks for laundering following the death in a Russian jail of Magnitsky, said more allegations will unfold.
More than $889 million went from accounts at Deutsche Bank to accounts of the “Troika Laundromat” between 2003 and 2017, German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung -- also part of the OCCRP group -- also reported. Deutsche Bank, in written comments, said it always cooperates with authorities and regulators worldwide and said that as a correspondent bank it only has limited access to information about the customers of the respondent bank.
Germany’s largest lender fell as much as 1.4 percent.
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