The British regulator fined the country’s largest bank HSBC Holdings Plc 63.9 million pounds sterling ($ 85 million), transfers BBC. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) of the United Kingdom found that the bank did not pay enough attention to anti-money laundering measures between 2010 and 2018.
“HSBC’s transaction monitoring systems have been ineffective for a long time, despite the signals that have surfaced on several occasions,” said Mark Stewart, FCA Chief Enforcement Officer. “Such shortcomings are unacceptable and they have exposed the bank and society to risks that could have been avoided.”
HSBC did not dispute the FCA’s decision, and therefore the amount of the fine was reduced by 30%. His representative assured that the deficiencies identified in the bank’s anti-money laundering systems have been eliminated.
In 2012, HSBC paid a $ 1.9 billion fine following an investigation by the US Department of Justice. It showed that the bank’s management did not interfere with the money-laundering of Mexican drug cartels. After that, the bank agreed to be under the supervision of US regulators for five years.
World Laundry
17 British banks, including HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds, Barclays and Coutts, have been used for several years to launder money, which were controlled by people associated with the criminal world, the Russian authorities and the FSB. This is evidenced by documents obtained from 2014 to 2017 by the Center for Corruption and Organized Crime Research (OCCRP) and “Novaya Gazeta”.
According to the data received, for the period from 2010 to 2014 at least $ 20 billion was withdrawn from Russia, but the amount could reach $ 80 billion, experts say. The scheme involved about 500 people, including oligarchs, Moscow bankers and people working in the FSB or structures close to it, as well as bankers in Moldova and Latvia. In addition, criminal cases were initiated against 16 Moldovan judges, reported OCCRP citing prosecutors.
The international scheme involved 19 Russian banks, including the Russian Land Bank (RZB), of which Vladimir Putin’s cousin Igor Putin was a member of the board of directors. RZB lost its license in March 2014 for anti-money laundering violations and dubious transactions in large volumes. According to investigators, about $ 9.7 billion was transferred through accounts in RZB to the accounts of the Moldovan Moldindconbank, and then the funds were transferred to Trasta komercbanka in Riga. Banker Alexander Grigoriev was also one of the major shareholders of RZB. Sources told OCCRP that he had ties to the FSB.
The scheme for transferring money from east to west was revealed in 2014. OCCRP originally called it the “Russian laundry”. Under this scheme, the two firms pretended to borrow money from each other, with a Russian company acting as the guarantor of the loan. Then one of the front companies defaulted on the loan. After that, the court in Moldova recognized the debt as genuine, which allowed the Russian company to transfer money to an account in Moldova, and from there to Latvia, which is part of the European Union.
The documents received by OCCRP contain detailed information on about 70 thousand banking transactions, of which 1920 went through British banks and 373 through American banks.
According to the data, $ 738.1 million was transferred through British banks and offices of foreign banks in London in the course of transactions, “probably involving criminal money from Moscow,” The Guardian noted. Most of the money, according to the newspaper, went through HSBC – $ 545.3 million, mostly through the Hong Kong branch. $ 113.1 million went through Royal Bank of Scotland, 71% owned by the British government, and $ 32.8 million through RBS’s Coutts, mainly through the Zurich office. Also, transactions were carried out through Standard Chartered ($ 28.6 million), UBS ($ 7.8 million), Barclays ($ 2.5 million) and ING ($ 2.4 million).
More than $ 63.7 million was transferred through American banks, including through Citibank ($ 37 million) and Bank of America ($ 14 million).
The British companies Seabon Ltd., liquidated in 2016, and Ronida Invest also participated in the money laundering scheme.