Isabel dos Santos in international investigation that reveals how banks are used by criminal organizations – World

A leak of more than 2,000 reports sent by various banks to the US authorities between 1999 and 2017 reveals bank transfers of more than two billion dollars – about 1.690 billion euros – associated with money laundering schemes and corruption. The reports were sent to FinCEN, the federal agency for combating financial crimes that gives the investigation its name.

It was coordinated by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), was triggered by the BuzzFeed News, who managed to get the set of reports and decided to share them. Part of these documents was obtained after the US Congressional inquiry into Russia’s alleged interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

The banks with the most reports included are Deutsche Bank (982), Bank of New York Mellon (325), Standard Chartered (232), JP Morgan Chase (107) or Barclays (104). The money included in these transfers, says BuzzFeed News, was used to finance drug cartels, organized crime and wars, as well as corrupt leaders from various countries and human trafficking.

The bank documents were shared with the U.S. government, but hidden from the public, and the investigation reveals that the Trump administration has made executive accountability even more difficult. Between the main targets of FinCEN Files are the Angolan businesswoman Isabel dos Santos and Paul Manafort, campaign leader for Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential elections, as well as the Brazilian company Odebrecht, central part of the Lava Jato investigation.

HSBC allowed fraudulent transfer of millions of dollars

British bank HSBC has allowed millions of dollars to be transferred fraudulently around the world, even after it became aware of the fraud, according to secret documents revealed, the BBC reported today.

The bank, the largest in the UK, transferred money through its business in the United States to HSBC accounts in Hong Kong in 2013 and 2014, according to information in a confidential file.

The BBC also indicated that the files now revealed detail what the bank’s role was in an investment fraud estimated at 80 million dollars (more than 67 million euros).

The documents also show that the investment scam – known as the Ponzi scheme – started shortly after the British bank was sanctioned with a £ 1,400 million ($ 1,900 million or € 1,600 million) fine in the United States for credit operations. money laundering, when it committed itself to eradicate this type of practices.

Isabel dos Santos
The name of the daughter of José Eduardo dos Santos, former president of Angola, appears in two reports on suspicious activity, both from 2013. The first was sent to FinCEN by an employee of the compliance department at JP Morgan Chase Bank, in the USA, and shows how this US bank helped Isabel dos Santos with transfers associated with her family and the Angolan State, despite not being her client.

According to the weekly Expresso, which is an integral part of the ICIJ, among the suspicious movements is a transfer of 4 million dollars made by Isabel dos Santos’ husband, Sindika Dokolo, which is related to the public money financing of the public company of Sodiam diamonds, for the purchase of De Grisogono jewelery, which went bankrupt earlier this year.

The second report, sent by Standard Chartered to FinCEN, does not directly mention the name of Isabel dos Santos but Unitel, the Angolan telecommunications company of which it is a shareholder and has already been president, in a transfer of US $ 18.7 million to an account of BPI in Lisbon, on behalf of a company called Vidatel Limited.

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