Financial-Crime

Senate Investigation Reveals Epstein's Billion-Dollar Russian Bank Transfers Linked to Trafficking

| Importance: 10/10

A comprehensive Senate Finance Committee investigation led by Senator Ron Wyden uncovered massive financial evidence demonstrating Jeffrey Epstein’s complex international money laundering and trafficking operations. The Treasury Department’s analysis revealed over 4,725 wire transfers …

Senate Finance Committee Ron Wyden Treasury Department Jeffrey Epstein Russian banks +3 more jeffrey-epstein russian-oligarchs money-laundering human-trafficking senate-investigation +4 more
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FinCEN Files Reveal $2 Trillion in Suspicious Banking Transactions

| Importance: 9/10

On September 20, 2020, BuzzFeed News and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) published the FinCEN Files, exposing over $2 trillion in suspicious financial transactions between 1999 and 2017. The investigation, involving 2,657 leaked documents and 2,121 suspicious …

FinCEN BuzzFeed News International Consortium of Investigative Journalists Jason Leopold Deutsche Bank +7 more money-laundering banking financial-crime regulatory-failure suspicious-transactions +4 more
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FinCEN Files Reveal $2 Trillion in Suspicious Banking Transactions

| Importance: 9/10

BuzzFeed News and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists published the FinCEN Files, revealing more than $2 trillion in suspicious banking transactions reported to the U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network between 1999 and 2017. The files contained over 2,100 Suspicious …

FinCEN BuzzFeed News International Consortium of Investigative Journalists Deutsche Bank HSBC +4 more money-laundering banking financial-crime regulatory-failure suspicious-transactions +2 more
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'FinCEN Files' leak reveals banks flagged >$2T in suspicious transactions; U.S. warns SAR disclosures are unlawful

| Importance: 8/10

The ICIJ/BuzzFeed ‘FinCEN Files’ exposed a massive global banking corruption investigation, revealing over $2 trillion in suspicious financial transactions across 200+ banks between 1999-2017. The leaked 2,657 documents, including 2,121 Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs), showed systemic …

Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) BuzzFeed News (original partner) Deutsche Bank HSBC +3 more money-laundering banking transparency financial-crime international-corruption
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TRM Labs Founded to Provide Blockchain Intelligence to Governments and Financial Institutions

| Importance: 7/10

Esteban Castano and Rahul Raina found TRM Labs in San Francisco, creating a blockchain intelligence platform designed to help government agencies, financial institutions, and cryptocurrency businesses detect and investigate crypto-related fraud and financial crime. The company enters a rapidly …

TRM Labs Esteban Castano Rahul Raina surveillance cryptocurrency private-sector financial-crime
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Deutsche Bank fined $630 million for $10 billion Russian money laundering scheme

| Importance: 9/10

Deutsche Bank paid $630 million to U.S. and UK regulators for facilitating $10 billion in Russian money laundering through “mirror trades” from 2011-2015. The scheme converted rubles to dollars through sham stock trades between Moscow and London offices. During this same period, Deutsche …

Deutsche Bank Donald Trump Jared Kushner New York Department of Financial Services UK Financial Conduct Authority money-laundering russian-money deutsche-bank mirror-trades financial-crime
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Chainalysis Founded to Provide Blockchain Forensics to Governments and Banks

| Importance: 8/10

Michael Gronager, Jonathan Levin, and Jan Møller found Chainalysis in late 2014, creating the first startup dedicated to Bitcoin tracing for government agencies and financial institutions. The company emerges from Gronager’s work investigating the Mt. Gox cryptocurrency exchange collapse, …

Chainalysis Michael Gronager Jonathan Levin Jan Møller surveillance cryptocurrency private-sector financial-crime
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Anonymous LLCs Enable $300B+ Annual Russian Money Flow into US Real Estate

| Importance: 9/10

By 2014, anonymous Limited Liability Companies (LLCs) and shell companies had become the primary infrastructure enabling Russian oligarchs and other kleptocrats to launder an estimated $300 billion or more annually into US real estate. Unlike most developed nations, the United States imposed no …

US Treasury FinCEN Russian Oligarchs US real estate industry money-laundering russian-oligarchs real-estate shell-companies fincen +3 more
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Elliptic Founded as First Cryptocurrency Anti-Money Laundering Firm

| Importance: 7/10

Elliptic is founded in London by Adam Joyce, Tom Robinson, and James Smith, becoming the first company to develop cryptoasset anti-money laundering and sanctions compliance tools based on blockchain analytics. The company pioneers the application of blockchain forensics to track illicit …

Elliptic Adam Joyce Tom Robinson James Smith surveillance cryptocurrency private-sector financial-crime
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HSBC Pays $1.9B for Money Laundering, No Executives Jailed

| Importance: 8/10

HSBC paid $1.9 billion for laundering money for Mexican drug cartels and violating sanctions against Iran, Libya, Sudan, and Cuba, but no executives faced criminal charges despite overwhelming evidence of intentional wrongdoing. The bank laundered at least $881 million for the Sinaloa and Norte del …

HSBC Lanny Breuer Department of Justice Mexican Drug Cartels Eric Holder +1 more money-laundering too-big-to-jail drug-cartels financial-crime impunity
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Wells Fargo Employees Begin Creating 3.5 Million Fake Accounts

| Importance: 9/10

Wells Fargo employees begin a systematic scheme to create unauthorized bank and credit card accounts, ultimately affecting 3.5 million customer accounts over five years. Driven by aggressive sales targets and compensation incentives, employees open accounts without customer consent, forge …

Wells Fargo John Stumpf Carrie Tolstedt corporate-fraud banking-regulation wells-fargo financial-crime
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Enron Files for Bankruptcy After Energy Task Force Influence

| Importance: 9/10

Enron filed for bankruptcy on December 2, 2001, marking the largest corporate bankruptcy in U.S. history at the time, with $63.4 billion in assets. The collapse revealed extensive corporate fraud orchestrated by CEO Kenneth Lay and President Jeffrey Skilling, who manipulated financial statements and …

Enron Kenneth Lay Jeffrey Skilling Dick Cheney George W. Bush enron bankruptcy corporate-fraud corruption financial-crime +2 more
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Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) Founded

| Importance: 8/10

Agha Hasan Abedi established the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) in Luxembourg, creating an international bank with initial capital from Bank of America and Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan. BCCI rapidly expanded to become the seventh-largest private bank in the world before being …

Agha Hasan Abedi Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan Bank of America banking financial-crime international-banking money-laundering regulatory-capture
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