Work visits to the U.S. described as “fuckery”, promises to “fix things” in the banking sector, disclosure of confidential information in a sauna and false testimony: a dropped case lifts the veil on how the former governor of the Bank of Latvia operated.
The Estonian banker was frantic: A whistleblower inside the bank suspected nine anonymous companies -- all registered in the United Kingdom -- of serious financial crimes and was threatening to go to authorities.
The FinCEN Files show trillions in tainted dollars flow freely through major banks, swamping a broken enforcement system.
From Ukraine to the United States, from Tunisia to Turkmenistan, a global ICIJ investigation details the punishing human cost of laundered trillions.
The leaked suspicious activity reports written by the US based banks to the country's financial crime investigators reveal that Latvia was considered a high-risk jurisdiction for years.
FinCEN warns Latvia about the increased risk of Latvian banking sector being used for money laundering and expresses special concerns regarding two of 23 Latvian banks. U.S. financial institutions were prohibited from opening or maintaining correspondent accounts at one of them - VEF Bank.