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In an exclusive investigative report published by the Guardian on Monday, March 20,2017, the Guardian uncovers an ongoing exceptional international money laundering scheme. Mr. L. Burke Files, President of The AACI, was the only cited expert whom the Guardian showed details of the transfers.
"Documents seen by the Guardian show that at least $20bn appears to have been moved out of Russia during a four-year period between 2010 and 2014. The true figure could be $80bn, detectives believe.......The Global Laundromat banking records were obtained by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) and Novaya Gazeta from sources who wish to remain anonymous. OCCRP shared the data with the Guardian and media partners in 32 countries.
The documents include details of about 70,000 banking transactions, including 1,920 that went through UK banks and 373 via US banks."
"The Guardian showed details of the transfers to L Burke Files, an international financial investigator. He said compliance checks at many western banks were desultory, and often little more than “box ticking”.
“Typically the compliance and investigations department is treated like an unwanted step-child. The directors of a bank see compliance as an expense without any return. The compliance professionals are underpaid, underskilled and receive little or no effective training in spotting criminal patterns.”
Files added: “Most of the transactions I’m seeing here would have required substantial enhanced due diligence. It isn’t just individual transactions. It’s the repeated pattern.”
Click here to read the complete news report.
The following are integral parts of the Guardian exclusive investigative report:
