Money laundering
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FILE PHOTO: Danske Bank sign is seen at the bank’s Estonian branch in Tallinn, Estonia August 3, 2018. REUTERS/Ints Kalnins/File Photo
April 17, 2019
COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – The EU banking watchdog has closed an investigation of financial regulators in Estonia and Denmark in relation to suspected money laundering activities by Danske Bank after it did not find any breach of EU law, the Estonian FSA said on Wednesday.
The European Banking Authority (EBA) in February said it had opened a formal investigation into a possible breach of EU law by Estonian and Danish regulators.
Denmark’s largest bank Danske Bank, has admitted that 200 billion euros ($226 billion) of suspicious transactions flowed through its Estonian branch between 2007 and 2015.
(Reporting by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen, editing by Louise Heavens)
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FILE PHOTO: Businessman Bill Browder speaks after the coroner ruled that Russian businessman Alexander Perepilichnyy probably died of natural causes outside his home in 2012, after the inquest concluded at the Old Bailey, in London, Britain, December 19, 2018. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls/File Photo
April 17, 2019
By Esha Vaish and Gederts Gelzis
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Bill Browder, an investor who campaigns to expose corruption, has taken a criminal complaint against Swedbank to Latvian authorities, alleging it was involved in a Russian money laundering scandal.
Swedbank is being investigated by Swedish and Baltic financial watchdogs after broadcaster SVT reported it processed gross transactions worth up to 20 billion euros ($22.6 billion) a year from high-risk, non-resident clients, mostly Russians, through its Estonian branch between 2010 and 2016.
These inquiries follow a fast-growing money laundering scandal centered on Danske Bank, which said last year that its Estonian branch had been used to move 230 billion euros ($260 billion) of suspicious payments from 2007 to 2015.
Browder, once the biggest foreign money manager in Russia, had already taken the complaint against Swedbank to Swedish and Estonian authorities, alleging that the Swedish bank’s accounts were used to launder $176 million from 2006 to 2012.
The bulk of this, $117 million, went through Swedbank’s Estonian branch and Browder’s complaint lodged with Latvian authorities, dated April 5 and seen by Reuters on Wednesday, showed some $41 million had passed through Latvia.
“We cooperate with the authorities in all our home markets in order to resolve current issues. However, we have no comment on the specific cases that Bill Browder now points to,” a Swedbank spokeswoman said in an emailed response.
Browder’s complaint, filed by his Hermitage Capital Management, called on Latvian authorities to look into the allegations alongside their ongoing broader probe into Russian money laundering links.
Latvian authorities did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
MAGNITSKY CASE
Browder has pushed for banks to be held accountable over links to a money laundering and tax fraud exposed by his former lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who died in a Russian jail in 2009.
He had previously brought cases against Swedbank’s rivals Nordea and Danske Bank, which is now the subject of investigations in the United States, France, Denmark, Estonia and Britain.
Estonia is including Browder’s Swedbank complaint in its Danske Bank inquiry, but Sweden dropped its investigation saying there were limited transfers involving Swedish accounts and that the statute of limitations had expired.
Sweden, along with authorities in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, is set to conclude its investigation into Swedbank later this year, while a separate Swedish economic crime agency inquiry into the bank’s conduct was expanded last month.
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(Reporting by Esha Vaish in Stockholm and Gederts Gelzis in Riga; Editing by Alexander Smith)
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European Union flags fly outside the European Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, April 10, 2019. REUTERS/Yves Herman/File Photo
April 16, 2019
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – European Union lawmakers approved on Tuesday an overhaul of banking rules, addressing some of the loopholes exposed by the global financial crisis.
The banking overhaul, proposed by the European Commission in November 2016, sets the level of cash banks must set aside to absorb losses and introduces new requirements for capital and liquidity, in line with global standards agreed after the 2007-09 financial crisis.
In separate votes, lawmakers also approved on Tuesday new rules that increase the powers of EU financial supervisors, although the final law is watered-down version of the initial proposal made by the EU Commission.
The Parliament passed as well new measures that grant EU-wide protection to whistleblowers who expose corruption, tax evasion and other crimes.
Under the banking reform approved by the parliament, EU lenders will be required to hold a minimum amount of funds against risks from their lending, in a bid to increase their financial stability.
Banks will also have to meet funding requirements aimed at limiting reliance on short-term financing that contributed to the global financial crisis.
The laws approved should strengthen the EU legal framework to combat money laundering, but the changes have been criticized as being insufficient to prevent the scandals that have recently engulfed several banks in the region.
(Reporting by Francesco Guarascio, editing by Larry King)
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FILE PHOTO: Actor Lori Loughlin, and her husband, fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, leave the federal courthouse after facing charges in a nationwide college admissions cheating scheme, in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S., April 3, 2019. REUTERS/Brian Snyder/File Photo
April 15, 2019
By Nate Raymond
BOSTON (Reuters) – Actress Lori Loughlin said on Monday she will plead not guilty to charges that she participated in what prosecutors say was the largest college admissions scandal uncovered in U.S. history.
Loughlin, who starred in the television sitcom, “Full House,” and her fashion designer husband Mossimo Giannulli filed papers in federal court in Boston seeking to waive their personal appearances at an arraignment hearing and have not guilty pleas entered on their behalf.
They are among 50 people accused of participating in a scheme that allowed wealthy parents to use cheating and bribes to help their children secure spots at universities like Yale, Georgetown and the University of Southern California (USC).
California college admissions adviser William “Rick” Singer has pleaded guilty to charges that he facilitated cheating on college entrance exams and bribed coaches at universities to falsely present the parents’ children as athletic recruits.
Loughlin, 54, and Giannulli agreed with Singer to pay $500,000 to have their two daughters named as recruits to USC’s crew team, prosecutors said, even though they did not row competitively, to help them gain admission.
The couple and several other parents were originally charged with conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud. Prosecutors secured an indictment on April 9 that included an additional charge of conspiring to commit money laundering.
In all, 33 parents have been charged in the college admissions scandal. Of those, 14 have agreed to plead guilty, including “Desperate Housewives” TV star Felicity Huffman.
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)
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FILE PHOTO: Malaysia’s Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad reacts during an interview with Reuters in Langkawi, Malaysia March 28, 2019. REUTERS/Feline Lim
April 13, 2019
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – Malaysia’s ruling coalition lost a state constituency in a by-election on Saturday in a further sign of declining public support for Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad’s alliance.
It is the third defeat for Mahathir’s Pakatan Harapan coalition, or Alliance of Hope, in local elections since it took power in May last year.
Its candidate, Streram Sinnasamy, lost the Rantau constituency in Negeri Sembilan state by 4,510 votes to Mohamad Hasan, the acting chairman of Barisan Nasional, the main opposition coalition.
Mohamad was appointed to the post after scandal-plagued former prime minister Najib Razak led Barisan Nasional to its first defeat in more than 60 years in last year’s national election.
Mohamad had won Rantau unopposed in 2018, but a Malaysian court later found errors in electoral procedure and called for a new poll.
His win is the latest blow for Mahathir’s coalition, which has faced criticism for failing to deliver on promised reforms and protecting the rights of majority ethnic Malay Muslims.
Polls consistently show that the coalition has been losing support among the Malays, some of whom fear that affirmative-action policies favoring them in business, education and housing could be taken away.
Anwar Ibrahim, a former deputy prime minister who is widely expected to succeed Mahathir, had actively campaigned in Rantau in a bid to garner support away from Mohamad, seen as a highly popular figure among Malays.
Meanwhile, Najib, an active public presence during two previous by-elections, was largely absent on the Rantau campaign trial as he faced the first of several corruption trials earlier this month.
Najib is facing more than 40 charges of money laundering and other offences over the alleged loss of billions of dollars from state fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad.
(Reporting by Rozanna Latiff)
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Latvian Minister of Justice Janis Bordans speaks during an interview in Riga, Latvia April 11, 2019. Picture taken April 11, 2019. REUTERS/Ints Kalnins
April 12, 2019
By John O’Donnell and Gederts Gelzis
RIGA (Reuters) – A year after closing one of its largest banks for money laundering and the detention of its central bank governor for alleged bribery, Latvia is struggling to deal with the fallout from the corruption scandal.
The country’s new government, formed in January after months of political deadlock, is trying to introduce reforms ahead of a review by international money-laundering standards watchdog Moneyval, which Latvian officials fear could label the Baltic state as high risk.
The stakes are high for Latvia, tarnished by a string of money laundering and corruption scandals, including the shuttering of banking group ABLV last year.
But efforts to clean up the country’s reputation are moving slowly. Central Bank Govenor Ilmars Rimsevics is still awaiting trial 14 months on from his brief detention. A top European court has ruled that he should not have been barred from office, in an embarrassing setback for the tiny state.
“Latvia is coming to crunch time,” said Valdis Liepins, chairman of anti-corruption group Transparency International in Latvia. “The whole system is corrupt. We finally need to do something.”
Latvia’s prime minister, Krisjanis Karins, has promised to accelerate an overhaul of the banking sector but his efforts have been overshadowed by lack of progress in the Rimsevics corruption case, the biggest in the former Soviet-ruled state’s history.
Rimsevics was accused last year by Latvia’s public prosecutor of accepting an offer of a 500,000 euro ($566,100) bribe from a Latvian bank.
Rimsevics, also a top policy-maker at the European Central Bank and who led Latvia into the euro, has denied wrongdoing.
He has returned to work following the European court ruling that Latvia broke EU law by barring him from office, and travels to ECB meetings in Frankfurt.
The Rimsevics case has sparked a public row between Latvia’s justice minister and the state prosecutor over how to tackle corruption and financial crime.
Justice minister Janis Bordans told Reuters he was looking at how to reorganize work in enforcement agencies, promising radical reform after what he said was a mishandling of the case.
“This is the failure of the investigation agencies,” Bordans said, singling out the state prosecutor. “It shows that there is some lack of efficiency and professionalism.”
Bordans blamed “inefficient representatives … in legal agencies” and poor leadership.
Latvia’s prosecutor general Eriks Kalnmeiers responded that the minister had no information about the details of the case that would qualify him to comment.
Unless there are meaningful reforms, the Moneyval review, due out in coming months, could label Latvia as high risk.
The Rimsevics investigation is also being watched closely by the United States, which has become frustrated with Latvia’s often years-long probes of corruption cases.
Rimsevics is also suspected of bribery linked to ABLV, prosecutor Viorika Jirgena and Jekabs Straume, who leads Latvia’s anti-corruption agency KNAB, told Reuters.
Rimsevics told Reuters he denied these allegations.
ABLV was shut last year when U.S. authorities accused it of money laundering and U.S. sanctions breaches, plunging the country into its worst financial crisis in a decade.
Marshall Billingslea, who leads the Office of Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes at the U.S. Treasury, will visit the country again in the coming weeks, people familiar with the matter said, highlighting Washington’s continued concern about the country’s progress.
Corruption investigator Straume said Latvia was undertaking “thorough” reforms to avoid a so-called grey-listing in the international Moneyval audit. “We don’t want to be on any list,” he said. “We are a normal country.”
But showing how the reforms are translating into action is tough.
Morten Hansen of the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga said Latvia was at a critical juncture: “This country is still struggling to prevail as a modern country.”
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(Reporting By John O’Donnell. Editing by Jane Merriman)
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FILE PHOTO: Swedbank sign is seen on the top of the bank’s Latvian head office in Riga, Latvia, April 9, 2019. REUTERS/Ints Kalnins/File Photo
April 12, 2019
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Estonian prosecutors said on Friday a criminal complaint against Swedish lender Swedbank over potential money laundering brought by investor Bill Browder would be added to an ongoing investigation into Danske Bank.
“Depending on the information gathered during the investigation the prosecutor can decide, whether, or which parts of the criminal investigation should be separated into a stand-alone investigation,” the prosecutor’s office said in an emailed statement.
Estonia’s prosecutors said earlier this month they had received a criminal complaint against Swedbank from Browder and would decide whether to start an investigation based on that complaint.
(Reporting by Simon Johnson; editing by Niklas Pollard)
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Danske Bank sign is seen at the bank’s Estonian branch in Tallinn, Estonia March 25, 2019. REUTERS/Ints Kalnins
April 12, 2019
COPENHAGEN (Reuters) – The Danish Business Authority said on Friday that it has asked the state prosecutor for financial fraud to investigate the auditor of scandal-hit Danske Bank’s 2014 accounts, Ernst & Young.
The authority said in October that it had launched an investigation into the external audit of Danske Bank’s financial statements for 2014, as well as the auditor’s duties in relation to suspected money laundering up until 2015.
Ernst & Young said it was cooperating with the authorities.
Danske Bank is under investigation in the United States, Denmark, Estonia, France and Britain over payments from Russia, ex-Soviet states and elsewhere that were found to have flowed through its Estonian unit between 2007 and 2015.
(Reporting by Teis Jensen; Editing by Susan Fenton)
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FILE PHOTO: Swedbank signs are seen on the bank’s Latvian head office in Riga, Latvia, April 9, 2019. REUTERS/Ints Kalnins/File Photo
April 11, 2019
By John O’Donnell and Gederts Gelzis
FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Latvia’s prime minister has promised to accelerate an overhaul of the banking sector as fears grow that money laundering scandals could single the country out as high risk, prompting Swedish lenders to leave and isolating the Baltic state.
In an interview with Reuters, Krisjanis Karins said he would take earlier reforms a step further and change rules on management appointments at the country’s banking regulator, while granting it the power to close banks with “dirty money”.
“We are giving out a signal to those individuals or companies looking for a place to launder money,” said Karins, who took over as prime minister in January. “We are saying we are not open for business.”
Early last year, U.S. authorities accused Latvia’s third biggest bank, ABLV, of money laundering and breaking sanctions on North Korea, prompting its closure and triggering the country’s worst financial crisis in a decade.
Latvia now faces a review by international money-laundering standards watchdog Moneyval in coming months, which some officials fear could label the country as risky, alongside the likes of Serbia and Pakistan.
The body issued a highly critical assessment of Latvia last year, citing corruption, vulnerability to international organized crime and exposure to corruption in neighboring former soviet states.
Acknowledging the threat of what officials call grey-listing, Karins said the country was serious about tackling corruption and financial crime, appealing directly to Swedish banks not to lose faith.
Swedbank has been drawn into a Baltic money laundering scandal that has wiped billions of euros off its market value, prompting fears among some Latvian officials that it could follow Danish rival Danske in leaving the area.
“These banks are important to our region. They are important to our financial stability,” Karins said.
“My message to them is very simple. They can rest assured that we are creating a very resilient system.”
A spokesman for Swedbank said that it would “continue to be the bank for the many households and corporates” in Sweden, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.
SEB Chairman Marcus Wallenberg recently said the region would remain an “important part” of future strategy.
GREY MONEY
Latvia’s finance minister, Janis Reirs, who visited Washington this week to outline his country’s progress to top U.S. officials, said investigating and prosecuting of financial crime would improve.
He met Marshall Billingslea, who leads the Office of Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes at the U.S. Treasury, according to officials.
“This grey money is one of the main feeding sources for corruption,” Reirs told Reuters.
The stakes are high for one of Europe’s poorest countries. While Latvia’s economy is growing, Morten Hansen, of the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga, said any grey-listing could hit its credit rating, risking a recession.
Nonetheless, the push by the new government, built on a fragile coalition of five parties, to reinvigorate reforms faces obstacles, including open divisions between lawmakers and the institutions tasked with policing banks.
Peters Putnins, who heads the Financial and Capital Market Commission, which supervises banks, said the government’s reforms amounted to political interference in his work and were a veiled attempt to oust him.
“This is reorganization … to change the … staff of the supervisory board of the commission,” he told Reuters. “The banking supervision must be independent. If this is not political interference, what is this?”
Since Latvia secured independence from Russia in 1991, more than a dozen of its banks have promoted themselves as a gateway to Western markets for clients in former Soviet states, promising Swiss-style secrecy.
That policy has now been abandoned under pressure from the U.S. and despite predictions by Latvian officials a year ago that many would close, the banks are still open.
Karins said the sector has been cleaned up but changing its approach to banking is still a difficult balancing act for Latvia.
Washington is an important military ally for the former Soviet-ruled state of 2 million people on the EU’s eastern flank. It also has close historical and trade ties with Russia.
Karins appealed for a joint European effort to tackle money laundering, criticizing the “patchwork” of laws around the region. “It’s a European problem,” he said. “Banks in this region have been used … as transit runs.”
(Writing By John O’Donnell; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)
Source: OANN
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange’s nearly seven year stay in the Ecuadorian embassy in London has finally come to a disastrous end. After Wikileaks warned last week that Ecuador was preparing in revoke Assange’s asylum based on the claim that he violated its terms, Assange was ousted on Thursday morning, and is now in the custody of British police.
Press reports suggested that Assange was arrested at around 10 am London Time (5 am New York) in what appeared to be a “planned operation.” Though his first battle will be with the British legal system over charges of skipping bail when he sought asylum in 2012, analysts expect that he will eventually face extradition to the US, after a sealed indictment against him were accidentally revealed last year. Wikileaks accused Ecuador of illegally terminating Assange’s asylum, adding that the Ecuadorian ambassador invited police inside the embassy to take Assange into custody.
URGENT: Ecuador has illigally terminated Assange political asylum in violation of international law. He was arrested by the British police inside the Ecuadorian embassy minutes ago.https://t.co/6Ukjh2rMKD
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) April 11, 2019
In a tweet published moments ago, Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno said that Assange’s “discourteous and aggressive” behavior, as well as “hostile” acts committed by Wikileaks, pushed Ecuador to revoke his asylum. Moreno cited Wikileaks’ publication of sensitive Vatican documents earlier this year as the straw that finally broke the camel’s back. Members of the organization purportedly visited Assange in the embassy after the leak, apparently substantiating suspicions that Assange was still in charge of the organization.
Furthermore, Moreno declared his asylum “unsustainable and no longer viable” because Assange had repeatedly violated “clear cut provisions of the conventions of on diplomatic asylum.”
In a sovereign decision Ecuador withdrew the asylum status to Julian Assange after his repeated violations to international conventions and daily-life protocols. #EcuadorSoberano pic.twitter.com/pZsDsYNI0B
— Lenín Moreno (@Lenin) April 11, 2019
Following reports last week that the termination of Assange’s asylum was imminent, a UN envoy on torture warned Ecuador that revoking Assange’s protection would be a violation, since he could face “torture” and mistreatment should he be extradited to the US. Assange’s relationship with his host had become increasingly strained over the past year. Last year, Ecuador briefly revoked some of Assange’s “privileges”, including access to the Internet, over his ‘poor hygiene habits’, the #INAPapers about offshore money laundering, implicating the Ecuadorian president in a corruption scandal.
Edward Snowden reminded journalists of the UN’s finding in a tweet following Assange’s arrest.
Important background for journalists covering the arrest of Julian #Assange by Ecuador: the United Nations formally ruled his detention to be arbitrary, a violation of human rights. They have repeatedly issued statements calling for him to walk free–including very recently. pic.twitter.com/fr12rYdWUF
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) April 11, 2019
The expulsion comes just a day after Wikileaks held a press conference accusing Ecuador of carrying out an “extensive spying operation” on Assange and handing intel over to the British and American authorities.
RT published video of a bearded, disheveled-looking Assange shouting at police as he was dragged out of the embassy and loaded into a van.
BREAK: Full @Ruptly video of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s arrest by British police this morning pic.twitter.com/tdBw1Kbpxn
— Barnaby Nerberka (@barnabynerberka) April 11, 2019
Footage of Assange’s arrest shows him holding a peculiar magazine that some suggested might have been an attempt to send his supporters a message.
What’s this book or magazine that Assange is holding? pic.twitter.com/lHDfw4PiNI
— Jessica Elgot (@jessicaelgot) April 11, 2019
Whatever Assange’s intentions might have been, others pointed out that the Wikileaks founder and former hacker was looking seriously vitamin D deficient…his time inside the embassy, where he was largely cut off from sunlight, have clearly taken a toll on him, as this photo from 2012, taken shortly after he arrived, clearly shows.
Journalist Cassandra Fairbanks, who had been in London to protest revocation of the asylum, tweeted what appears to be a first-hand account of the arrest.
They just dragged him out of the embassy. Cucked piece of shit @lenin just let the UK GOVERNMENT GO INSIDE THE EMBASSY TO ARREST A MAN WITH ASYLUM.
FUCK YOU FUCK YOU FUCK YOU
— Cassandra Fairbanks (@CassandraRules) April 11, 2019
She also pointed out that Moreno will visit Washington DC in five days.
ECUADORIAN PRESIDENT @LENIN WILL BE IN DC IN FIVE DAYS. I AWAIT YOUR VISIT YOU FUCKING MONSTER
— Cassandra Fairbanks (@CassandraRules) April 11, 2019
Scotland Yard has confirmed that Assange is in custody.
Julian Assange has been arrested by officers from the Metropolitan Police Service https://t.co/yhOIPbmMo2 pic.twitter.com/dUrDp228In
— Metropolitan Police (@metpoliceuk) April 11, 2019
Home Secretary Sajid Javid thanked Ecuador for its cooperation, suggesting that pressure from the British government was also a factor in Ecuador’s decision to revoke asylum.
Nearly 7yrs after entering the Ecuadorean Embassy, I can confirm Julian Assange is now in police custody and rightly facing justice in the UK. I would like to thank Ecuador for its cooperation & @metpoliceuk for its professionalism. No one is above the law
— Sajid Javid (@sajidjavid) April 11, 2019
While Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt thanked Ecuador and said Assange was “no hero” and that “no one is above the law.”
Julian Assange is no hero and no one is above the law. He has hidden from the truth for years. Thank you Ecuador and President @Lenin Moreno for your cooperation with @foreignoffice to ensure Assange faces justice
— Jeremy Hunt (@Jeremy_Hunt) April 11, 2019
Foreign office minister Alan Duncan has issued a statement, calling the arrest “absolutely right” and adding that the UK courts will “deicde what happens next.”
“It is absolutely right that Assange will face justice in the proper way in the UK. It is for the courts to decide what happens next. We are very grateful to the government of Ecuador under President Moreno for the action they have taken.”
Infowars’ Kaitlin Bennett asks Trump supporters how they feel when wearing a MAGA hat in public.
“Today’s events follow extensive dialogue between our two countries. I look forward to a strong bilateral relationship between the UK and Ecuador in the years ahead.”
A spokeswoman for Russia’s foreign ministry denounced the arrest as ‘the hand of democracy squeezing the throat of freedom’.
With Assange facing a complicated, Continent-spanning legal fight, Wikileaks is soliciting donations for its ‘defense fund’ on Twitter.
URGENT: Julian Assange has been arrested by UK police.
DONATE:https://t.co/vvbZBOgCwL
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) April 11, 2019
They also accused the CIA of orchestrating his arrest.
This man is a son, a father, a brother. He has won dozens of journalism awards. He’s been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize every year since 2010. Powerful actors, including CIA, are engaged in a sophisticated effort to dehumanise, delegitimize and imprison him. #ProtectJulian pic.twitter.com/dVBf1EcMa5
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) April 11, 2019
Assange’s arrest marks the end of an era, and the ignominious close of a nearly decade-long struggle. Much has yet to be determined, including this.
Who will look after #Assange’s cat? 😳
— Testiculi ad Brexitam! (@testiculi) April 11, 2019
Amid the chaos…a new hashtag has been born #FreeAssange.
The arrest of @wikileaks founder Julian #Assange by British police is outrageous! #FreeAssange
— Andrea Marchello (@AndreaMarchell0) April 11, 2019
Source: InfoWars
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