FinCEN Files

 ( 2020 In Germany ) 

Prominent individuals highlighted in the leaks include former Donald Trump campaign campaign manager Paul Manafort, -Turkey gold trader Reza Zarrab, businessman Jho Low, and alleged organised crime boss Semion Mogilevich.

Other reporting on national connections to the FinCEN Files includes the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's reporting on HSBC and coverage by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

The Indian Express reported that Jindal Steel and Power was flagged by Deutsche Bank for money laundering.

The SARs, with additional investigations by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, also provide further details on the scheme employed by Reza Zarrab to evade economic sanctions on Iran, and its links with the Magnitsky Act and other Russian money laundering schemes.

In Macau, the Macau News Agency (MNA) reported that 62 transactions involving more than US$68.2million that flowed to or from four banks in Macau between 2000 and 2017 were flagged as potentially suspicious money-laundering transactions. The banks included the Bank of China, Banco Nacional Ultramarino, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (Macau), and HSBC Macau. All these transactions were processed through three American-based financial institutions, that filed SARs with FinCEN by the China Investment Corporation, The Bank of New York Mellon and Standard Chartered.

In Malaysia, the Malay Mail reported that several international banks had been flagged in numerous suspicious transactions involving fugitive Malaysian businessman Low Taek Jho, involving 103 transactions worth US$2.53billion. The banks involved included Citibank, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, JPMorgan Chase, and the Bank of New York Mellon. Jho allegedly played a role in being the main person in the laundering of proceeds from the government unit 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).

Also reported by the Malay Mail, that several leading Malaysian banks and international banks with their Malaysian subsidiaries had been flagged by FinCEN in 23 suspicious transactions with over US$4.88million entering andUS$13.38 million leaving the country. The banks included Public Bank Berhad, AmBank, HSBC Bank Malaysia, Alliance Bank Malaysia Berhad, United Overseas Bank, CIMB Bank, and Standard Chartered. The flagged transactions going in and out of these Malaysian banks involved overseas accounts in countries including Afghanistan, Latvia, Poland, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the United States.

In the Philippines, the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) reported that the files show that two Philippine remittance agents Philrem Service Corp. (Philrem) and Werquick Inc. sent more than $1billion of what were deemed suspicious wires from 2012 to 2016, that were coursed through their foreign currency accounts held at Philippine banks Banco de Oro (BDO), Metrobank and Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC). Philrem and RCBC were involved in the illicit transfer of stolen funds from the Bangladesh Bank in 2016.

It was also reported that overseas proceeds from a sextortion scheme that were sent by wire transfer into U.S. banks amounting to more than $400,000 into the accounts of a certain Philippine criminal syndicate led by Charvel Yap Rebagay. His company, Digital Minds and its call centers offices across the Philippines were raided by the Philippine National Police and Interpol in 2014 for sextortion activities. Rebagay is still a wanted fugitive.

In Japan, the files also revealed a consulting firm for the Tokyo Olympic 2020 bid committee paid $370,000 to Papa Massata Diack, son of former International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) President and International Olympic Committee (IOC) Lamine Diack that were coursed through Black Tidings, a consulting firm based in Singapore, received a total of $2million from the bid committee paid into a bank account in the city-state in July and October 2013 and later transferred to Diack's Citibank account. Diack was jailed for corruption and breach of trust by a Paris district court earlier in 2020.

It was reported that the Turkish bank Aktif Bank was a financial facilitator for Wirecard and was alleged to have laundered money for the Taliban.

The Central Bank of the UAE failed to act on SARs related to evading sanctions in Iran.

ICIJ and Deutsche Welle report that Germany's Deutsche Bank accounted for 62% of the leaked SARs. Deutsche Welle further notes that Deutsche Bank was responsible for $1.3trillion worth of suspicious transactions, even after hundreds of millions in fines for violating US sanctions. BuzzFeed News also reported that the files revealed Deutsche Bank was a major source of money laundering for organised crime, terrorists and drug traffickers.

In Ireland, The Irish Times reported on a Dublin business called International Overseas Services Group (IOS), an international company services operation, whose office in Riga, Latvia, helped clients from Russia and the former Soviet Union establish secret accounts with and Latvian banks, with United Kingdom LLP shell company formed back in the 1990s. The FinCEN documents show that 646 of 2,100 Scotland and England company SARs are linked to this Irish company, the largest number of any such entity. As for his relationship with money laundering, the company founder likens himself to the innocent seller of a criminal getaway car.

The files revealed that US banks have notified their authorities of around $160million that has gone through the partly state-owned DNB ASA group. The transactions via DNB took place mainly from 2015 to 2017. Some transfers date back to 2008.

A report by the BBC suggests that the FinCen Files reveal that the United Kingdom bank HSBC was involved in numerous illegal money transfers. At the time, HSBC was subject to a deferred prosecution agreement for the laundering of $881million on behalf of the Sinaloa Cartel and Norte del Valle drug cartel. The files also describe how Barclays Bank laundered money on behalf of Arkady Rotenberg, a close associate of Vladimir Putin, who is under sanctions for his involvement in the Russo-Ukrainian War. The BBC further notes that the UK is judged a "higher risk jurisdiction" due to the number of the country's companies appearing in SARs.

The Times of Malta reported that €647m worth of transfers by Afren into Electrogas were flagged as suspicious.

Javier Mascherano was reportedly flagged for money laundering for more than $1million in transactions by his British Virgin Islands-registered company, Alenda Investments Ltd.

The FinCEN Files implicate former Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto in money laundering. The files revealed that Group Grand Limited was controlled by Alex Saab and Álvaro Pulido.

NBC News reported that North Korea laundered money through US banks via shell companies and Chinese firms.