Exclusive: Big U.S. banks to push for easing of money laundering rules
Source: Reuters
Thu Feb 16, 2017 | 10:49am EST
By Joel Schectman, Karen Freifeld and Brett Wolf | WASHINGTON/NEW YORK
America's largest banks are to propose a complete overhaul of how financial institutions investigate and report potential criminal activity, arguing that rules imposed in the years after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and strengthened during the Obama administration are onerous and ineffective, sources said.
The Clearing House, a trade association representing the largest U.S. banks including JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N), Bank of America (BAC.N) and Citigroup (C.N), has long raised concerns about the effectiveness of the current rules, but this will be the first time the group has publicly called for them to be revamped.
The proposal, which could be published as soon as Thursday, will set the stage for an intensive lobbying effort targeting bank regulators and members of the Senate and House of Representatives finance committees. President Donald Trump has said he wants to cut costly regulations for Wall Street.
To keep drug traffickers and terrorists from laundering money through the U.S. financial system, federal law mandates that bank employees file a Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) with authorities if they suspect transactions could be part of a crime.
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-banks-moneylaundering-exclusive-idUSKBN15V1E9
ck4829
(35,039 posts)TexasBushwhacker
(20,148 posts)to flag suspicious activity better than depending on bank employees. For one thing, bank employees could be subject to bribes or threats. Banks too, for that matter. A computer program would be better with recognizing patterns.
cstanleytech
(26,243 posts)It runs the risk of being hacked into for example not to mention you have to trust that the person who wrote it doesnt have a backdoor or didnt program it in the first place to not flag certain activities by certain people and or bank accounts.
Crash2Parties
(6,017 posts)I worked on some of the algorithms some years back.
The Wizard
(12,536 posts)want to eliminate money laundering regulations and laws?
Kimchijeon
(1,606 posts)just like why would any reputable company wanna be able to dump toxic garbage in the river? LOL
They are so obvious.
cstanleytech
(26,243 posts)and make a ton of money doing it and they know it.
cpamomfromtexas
(1,245 posts)To the boy scout troop the bank wont ask for my drivers license! Yippee
That always chaps my ass. If I were laundering money it wouldn't be through a tiny troop account.
Bobbie Vinton
(4 posts)Trump, Russia and Money Laundering FBI is actively investigating.
Last week I read that Trump owes Deutsche Bank $300 million; that in January Deutsche Bank paid regulators from the US and UK government a total of $588 million in fines for laundering $10 billion out Russia. And moreover, earlier this month Trumps Taj Mahal Associates LLC settled to pay the Treasury Department a $10 million civil penalty for violating anti-money-laundering program requirements.
Well, yesterday it was revealed that the FBI is probing front-companies which Trump and Russia have been allegedly using to secretly do business with each other.
In addition to the FBI probe, Democratic congressman Bill Pascrell Jr, a member of the House Ways and Means committee, said the bank was under federal investigation for aiding Russian money-laundering - a troubling potential conflict.
In looking into the issue further I have found that: Three detailed reports by the Financial Times based on title deeds, bank records and correspondence, found that Trump and the Russian mob has laundered money through the use of anonymous LLCs on both sides; the Trump side and the Russian crime bosses side.
It goes something like this: One anonymous LLC (Russian mobsters) forks over a monumentally bloated wad of millions for another anonymous LLC (Trumps) property like an apartment worth considerably less than the selling price.
Trumps organization is an ideal means of laundering Russian criminals dirty money because:
Real estate has an arbitrary value. Is that apartment worth $1 million? Two million? Why not $3 million for a buyer who really wants it? When the whole transaction is just one LLC with undisclosed ownership paying another LLC with undisclosed ownership, its even neater than hiding the money in an offshore account. And while some businesses require due diligence in looking at the source of funds, real estate is a bit more
flexible.
American laws regulating real estate deals are nearly non-existent.
Criminals from Russia, like all money launderers, pay in dirty cash; it is precisely how Trump and the Russian criminals easily avoided prying eyes of regulators.
The idea of converting the Russian mobsters stolen cash from overseas into Trumps properties in the U.S., and Russian cash deposited into an account of a Trump LLC listed as anonymous, was a dirty win for both the criminal oligarchs and the criminal Trump. The only thing Trump was required to do was just ignore deal and never pay any attention whatsoever to its particulars; something he has brought to the Oval Office for all to see.
Trump Lie Exposed With Proof He Is Indebted To Russian Mobsters
http://www.politicususa.com/2017/02/18/trump-lie-exposed-proof-indebted-russian-mobsters.html
In which the author states his opinion:
As calls for a comprehensive investigation into Trumps conspiring with Putin to award him the White House become deafening and lead to an all-inclusive independent investigation, all of this illegal money laundering for Russian criminals will become common knowledge. It is why Trump is attempting to sully the media as dishonest and that any reporting on his deep ties to the Russians is fake news in hopes the public will ignore the truth in reporting as it develops going forward; and it is going to develop going forward. The IC will see to that and a fed up at being labeled dishonest media will do its part.
Trumps terror at being exposed as a Russian collaborator is also why Trump continues to demean the intelligence community. He knows for a fact that the IC has mountains of devastatingly incriminating documentation that he does, in fact, have very deep ties to the Russians and is heavily indebted to them. The good news is that Trump has made very public claims, including on Thursday at his bizarre press conference, that in no possible way does he have now, or has ever had, any business relationships or ties to the Russians.
That latest rash of lies will be a damning piece of evidence that Trump lied on national television about something that is becoming such common knowledge that even congressional Republicans will have difficulty pretending there is no impeachable offense. They cant cover up Trumps lies any more without implicating themselves in a conspiracy involving the criminal in the White House and crime bosses and oligarchs in Russia. Those Russian mobsters saved Trumps businesses with dirty money he gladly aided them in laundering because like every common criminal on the planet, Trump will do anything for money; including jeopardize the security of the United States of America for the nation that earned his devotion and allegiance with dirty money, Russia.
This is a very conclusive report from the Financial Times.
Dirty money: Trump and the Kazakh connection
https://www.ft.com/content/33285dfa-9231-11e6-8df8-d3778b55a923
A Financial Times investigation has found evidence that one Trump venture has multiple ties to an alleged international money-laundering network. Title deeds, bank records and correspondence show that a Kazakh family accused of laundering hundreds of millions of stolen dollars bought luxury apartments in a Manhattan tower part-owned by Mr. Trump and embarked on major business ventures with one of the tycoons partners
The revelations raise questions about what steps his business takes to ensure that the funds that pour through it are clean.
Jennifer Shasky Calvery, then director of the US Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, warned in January corrupt foreign officials, or transnational criminals, may be using premium US real estate to secretly invest millions in dirty money.
FBI probes Trump-Russia front companies, after Trumps bank caught laundering Russian money.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia-cyber-idUSKBN15X0OE
Two parallel investigations on two different continents into illegal financial activities by Russia, both connected to Donald Trump, may turn out to be the same investigation. Three weeks ago Deutsche Bank in Germany, which has been almost single handedly keeping Trump afloat with loans in recent years, was caught in a massive Russian money-laundering scheme. And yesterday it was revealed that the FBI is probing front-companies which Trump and Russia have been allegedly using do secretly to business with each other.
So heres the billion dollar question: is this FBI investigation into Trumps clandestine Russian financial connections based on what was exposed in the Russian money laundering probe into Deutsche Bank? More will inevitably leak out from the intel community one way or the other.
https://www.palmerreport.com/politics/fbi-probes-trump-russia-laundering-bank/1599/
U.S. inquiries into Russian election hacking include three FBI probes
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia-cyber-idUSKBN15X0OE
in which the reporter states: [The] counterintelligence inquiry includes but is not limited to examination of financial transactions by Russian individuals and companies who are believed to have links to Trump associates. The transactions under scrutiny involve investments by Russians in overseas entities that appear to have been undertaken through middlemen and front companies, two people briefed on the probe said.
And last here are the posts that I put on Facebook last Wednesday when I stumbled upon the article in the Wall Street Journal that reported on the Taj Mahals settlement.
https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=Robert%20Veltkamp%20money%20laundering
I can only imagine what it means if the FBI comes to the same conclusions as the Financial Times. Trump will be indicted for money laundering and obviously impeached.
cstanleytech
(26,243 posts)could in theory just grant himself a pardon as there isnt any legal limit to his pardon ability if I recall correctly.
The only thing he cant do is he cannot legally stop an impeachment but for that to happen the Repugnants would have to get on board and there is almost no way in hell they would impeach one of there own.
Hell they didnt do anything when Cheney got drunk and shot that guy in the face or when Bush shit all over the Constitution and authorized torture except smile and say "Hell ya thats one patriotic American we are damn proud of.".