BuzzFeed News: The FinCEN Files

[demmiblue]

A huge trove of secret government documents reveals for the first time how the giants of Western banking move trillions of dollars in suspicious transactions, enriching themselves and their shareholders while facilitating the work of terrorists, kleptocrats, and drug kingpins.

And the US government, despite its vast powers, fails to stop it.

Today, the FinCEN Files — thousands of “suspicious activity reports” and other US government documents — offer an unprecedented view of global financial corruption, the banks enabling it, and the government agencies that watch as it flourishes. BuzzFeed News has shared these reports with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and more than 100 news organizations in 88 countries.

These documents, compiled by banks, shared with the government, but kept from public view, expose the hollowness of banking safeguards, and the ease with which criminals have exploited them. Profits from deadly drug wars, fortunes embezzled from developing countries, and hard-earned savings stolen in a Ponzi scheme were all allowed to flow into and out of these financial institutions, despite warnings from the banks’ own employees.

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/jasonleopold/fincen-files-financial-scandal-criminal-networks

[tblue37]

1. K&R for visibility. nt

[BComplex]

2. So they finally outed these documents. I hope it has an impact somewhere.

The republicans in charge of our government don't want to clean it up, because I'm sure they're all involved in some manner.

[roamer65]

3. Pretty much confirms Deutsche Bank is a large conduit for dirty money.

[benld74]

4. Western banks are greedy mother truckers

OR

Are in FAR worse shape & desperately needed the funds to remain solvent themselves

Thoughts??

[ProfessorGAC]

24. The Former

Bank liquidity, direct liabilities, and return value (ROA) trends are all readily available.
The banks have no liquidity issues, assets greatly out value liabilities, and the return on assets values are stable.
They're just run by greedy people for whom there is no "enough".

[FakeNoose]

5. A lot of info here - worth a look-see

I have an honest question - wasn't the Magnitsky Act supposed to stop this money laundering? Obviously it was aimed at Russian money-laundering, but I thought it was expanded against other illegal fascist regimes?

This article in today's BuzzFeed is more about the banks enabling money laundering, but Magnitsky was enacted to stop all of that. Am I right? Most countries of Europe have now adopted (or are in the process of adopting) their own Magnitsky laws, so we're presenting a united front against illegal money laundering.

What am I missing?

Still I plan to give this article a thorough reading. Thanks BuzzFeed, and thanks Demmiblue for posting!

[Budi]

6. I just made it thru the front page. 🤬

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/jasonleopold/fincen-files-financial-scandal-criminal-networks



DIRTY MONEY POURS INTO THE WORLD’S MOST POWERFUL BANKS

*DRUG CARTELS,
ORGANIZED CRIME RINGS,
CORRUPT LEADERS.

*MONEY THAT FUNDS TERROR NETWORKS,
BLOODY WARS,
AND HUMAN TRAFFICKING

*ALL LAUNDERED CLEAN.

*THE BANKS DON’T STOP THE MONEY
AND THE GOVERNMENT DOESN’T STOP THE BANKS.

[2naSalit]

16. Just as I have been saying for a couple years.

I'm sure the details will confirm my very long suspicions about why we are where we are right now. THIS is who wants democracy to fail, so that a worldwide fiefdom can dominate the whole world.

[BlueMTexpat]

7. Here's another link

to use as well: https://www.occrp.org/en/the-fincen-files/

More about the OCCRP: https://www.occrp.org/en/

While the OCCRP site is fascinating and informative, it is also terrifying.

[Budi]

10. Thanks. OCCRP is a solid link. No sugar coating their discoveries

K & R

Take the time on this day to read & become aware of what we're facing.


Knowledge is power & we'll need it to walk thru the dark we're entering & out the other side, intact, together & with our Democracy in hand.

I am so grateful to those who did the work to bring the darknes to the light of day.

~

[BadgerMom]

8. K & R

[gibraltar72]

9. How many times does Wilbur Ross name come up?

[triron]

25. How about Donald Trump?

[AllaN01Bear]

11. from another post of mine .

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=2585784

[dlk]

12. Follow the money...

[octoberlib]

13. Just read the first page. Can't wait to dig into it. Wyden has a really good point here.

Money laundering is a crime that makes other crimes possible. It can accelerate economic inequality, drain public funds, undermine democracy, and destabilize nations — and the banks play a key role. “Some of these people in those crisp white shirts in their sharp suits are feeding off the tragedy of people dying all over the world,” said Martin Woods, a former suspicious transactions investigator for Wachovia.


Laws that were meant to stop financial crime have instead allowed it to flourish. So long as a bank files a notice that it may be facilitating criminal activity, it all but immunizes itself and its executives from criminal prosecution. The suspicious activity alert effectively gives them a free pass to keep moving the money and collecting the fees.

Sen. Ron Wyden, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, which requested some of these SARs, said the FinCEN Files investigation “reinforces the fact that we now have two systems of law enforcement and justice in the country.” Drug cartels move millions through US banks; poor people go to jail for possession. “If you're wealthy and well-connected, you can figure out how to do an enormous amount of harm to society at large and ensure that it accrues to enormous financial benefit for all of you.”

Robert Mazur, a former federal special agent and an expert in money laundering, said that making this material public "could enhance national security, aid future investigations, and encourage institutions to more consistently adhere to SAR filing requirements,” and "will hopefully get people who are in a position of power to correct an apparent systemic failure.”

[AllaN01Bear]

14. just read the article and my head hurts and im

see post eleven.

[hotrod0808]

15. I read the article

as soon as I saw it pop up on Twitter this morning. It was exhausting, infuriation, and made me wonder what else is being hidden because of the privacy laws.

[cayugafalls]

17. Dirty money makes the world go round.

Wars, Dictatorships, Drug Cartels, Oligarchs, Terrorists...etc.

All funded by banks. No bank will refuse hundreds of millions of dollars, they will find a way to add it to their coffers everytime.

Money. Root of all evil.

[KS Toronado]

18. Would love to see Biden put Elizabeth Warren in a cabinet position to look into this.

And other financial crimes.

[rurallib]

19. Could it be done with a senate investigation?

I would really like to keep Warren in the senate where she could team up with California's new senator, Katie Porter to write some incredible legislation not only on this, but also for consumers.

[KS Toronado]

20. Well that too, but when an investigation is over, it's over, case closed.

That's why I'm thinking some sort of permanent office that could look for wrongdoings on a
permanent basis.

[moondust]

21. Systemic corruption.

Largely a result of Ronald Reagan flashing the green light to predatory capitalism and "greed is good," with the utterly unfit, dangerous, totalitarian Donald Trump squatting in the White House 40 years later an overt symptom of how morally bankrupt things have become.

IMO

[Warpy]

22. The original story of drug cartel money flooding into major US banks

broke well over a decade ago, so there is nothing new about that part. Nothing was done, of course, after the crash neither Geithner nor Summers wanted to derail the gravy train as the banks cried poverty.

[OMGWTF]

23. Give a man a gun and he can rob a bank; give a man a bank and he can rob the world.

[Hortensis]

26. Global wealth exploded over the past few decades with

advances in energy and goods production. With the development of ultrawealthy classes that are as or more powerful than governments, and the information age, came increasing decentralization and diffusion of power to them. The old government power centers have been unable, even those most willing, to move as fast as needed to control the activities of other power centers, which set out to put their own agents in government of course.

Those politicians who don't believe in the value of government, in equality, that government regulation is necessary to protect the many from the powerful, or that government should be used progressively as a tool to serve the people have, of course, been extremely easy to corrupt to serve wealthy power blocs.

Fortunately for us, we do have other politicians who believe strongly in equality of all, the right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, and in government of, by and for the people to secure it. To continue to do that, as Nancy Pelosi said on our regaining control of the House, we must destroy those new classes so wealthy that to them control by the people is a nuisance, an insult!, and a threat to their continued existence.

[spanone]

27. ⭐️K&R⭐️

[Klaralven]

28. Woody Guthrie

Yes, as through this world I've wandered
I've seen lots of funny men;
Some will rob you with a six-gun,
And some with a fountain pen.

https://www.woodyguthrie.org/Lyrics/Pretty_Boy_Floyd.htm

[not_the_one]

29. Across the board, the enemy here is SECRECY!

EVERYTHING shady, illegal, illegitimate, unethical they want to do, and for us to not know about it, is done in secrecy. They COUNT on it to hide all the shit they do, allowing them to weaken democracy more and more, and get richer and richer in the process.

Secrecy should be outlawed in ALL SCENARIOS except for immediate military action. No exceptions. I repeat, NO EXCEPTIONS.

If you want it to be kept secret you are trying to get away with something, and we should assume it is criminal activity.

NO MORE CLOSED INVESTIGATION SESSIONS. And in the same vein, NO MORE VOTING ON LEGISLATION THAT HASN'T EVEN BEEN READ!

The democratic party may want to try being the party of total, complete, and transparent, truth. They may be surprised with the response from the American people.

[Mike 03]

30. From the investigation:

Sen. Ron Wyden, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, which requested some of these SARs, said the FinCEN Files investigation “reinforces the fact that we now have two systems of law enforcement and justice in the country.” Drug cartels move millions through US banks; poor people go to jail for possession. “If you're wealthy and well-connected, you can figure out how to do an enormous amount of harm to society at large and ensure that it accrues to enormous financial benefit for all of you.”

FinCEN received more than 2 million SARs last year. That number has nearly doubled over the past decade, as financial institutions have faced mounting pressure to file and the volume of international transactions has grown. Over the same period, FinCEN’s staff has shrunk by more than 10%. Sources there say most SARs are never even read, let alone acted upon.

Meanwhile, experts say, some banks treat SARs as a kind of get-out-of-jail-free card, filing alerts about a huge array of transactions without actually moving to halt them. In some cases, banks filed numerous reports on the same clients, detailing their suspected crimes over the course of years while continuing to welcome their business.

By December 2013, JPMorgan Chase had filed at least eight SARs on accounts and companies controlled by Manafort, flagging more than $10 million, according to a FinCEN research report. Manafort, who went on to become Trump’s campaign chair, was convicted of bank and tax fraud in 2018.