SA banks linked in flow of 'dirty money'
Several global banks moved large sums of allegedly illicit funds during nearly two decades, despite warnings about the organisations they were dealing with, BuzzFeed and other media reported yesterday, citing documents submitted by banks to the government.
According to TimesLIVE, the reports were partly based on documents filed by banks and other financial firms with the US Department of Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), obtained by Buzzfeed News and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and other media organisations.
The FinCEN files reportedly show that 173 transactions that flowed to or from banks in SA were flagged as potentially suspicious.
The banks include Standard Bank, Citibank South Africa and Standard Chartered Bank South Africa.
The ICIJ reported that the files, which they called the FinCEN files, identify more than $2trn (R32.6trn) of transactions between 1999 and 2017 that were flagged by internal compliance departments of financial institutions as possible money laundering or other criminal activity.
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