UK banks ‘handled’ $740m in laundered Russian money
Arab News, 22 March 2017
LONDON: Several British banks allegedly processed nearly $740 million in a multi-billion dollar Russian money-laundering scam, The Guardian newspaper reported on Monday.
According to documents obtained by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, at least $20 billion was moved out of Russia between 2010 and 2014 in a vast criminal operation called “The Global Laundromat.” The scam involved over 500 people including oligarchs and Russian criminals with links to the government and the domestic intelligence agency, the FSB.
Over that period, British banks including HSBC, the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), Barclays and Coutts reportedly handled over 1,900 transactions — out of 70,000 — worth nearly $740 million.
A further 373 operations are believed to have gone through US banks, for a total amount of $63 million.
“Barclays complies with the rules and regulations in all the jurisdictions in which it operates and has systems and controls in place to mitigate the risk of the bank being used to facilitate financial crime,” a spokesman for the bank said.
HSBC responded to the allegations saying: “The bank has systems and processes in place to identify suspicious activity and report it to the appropriate government authorities.
