Money laundering $2.1 trillion a year

[Firestarter]

I’ve found information on another interesting money laundering scandal and thought this is a good moment to compile money laundering stories in one thread. In 2017, an estimated $2.1 trillion was laundered by the banks (annually).

I’m beginning to see a pattern.
Corrupt politicians, attorneys and judges never punish the top management of the banks and fine them only a small percentage of the laundered cash in the hope they can get a slice of the pie. The banks simply promise to do better (but why would they?).
The money laundering in itself is simple. It’s just a matter of making some transactions over several countries using shell companies and the authorities and banks simply claim that they don’t know what’s going on.

The following countries are hotspots of money laundering:
Britain, the British Virgin Islands;
The Netherlands, the Dutch Antilles;
USA, New York and California;
Iceland;
Cyprus;
Switzerland.

The big problem is to get the laundered money back without drawing suspicion from the media.
One way is to pay excorbitant consultancy and speaking fees (see for example Clinton).
Another way is to pay much more than the market price for real estate (see for example Trump).

Money laundering schemes inflate prices, so basically laundering money even takes away the value of our hard earned savings.
The money is used to rig elections.
The laundered money is also used to sponsor (false flag) terrorism: http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthr...e-flag-attacks


Danske Bank - $230 billion
Last month, Thomas Borgen resigned as the CEO of Danske Bank (Denmark’s biggest bank), after it became known that from 2007 to 2015 its Estonian branch laundered more than 200 billion euros (some $230 billion).
In 2013, the first whistleblower came forward to disclose that the Estonian branch was knowingly laundering funds from Russian President Vladimir Putin’s family and the Russian security service (FSB). Since then several whistleblower followed, including one that claimed that the Estonian branch “knowingly continued to deal with a company that had committed a crime”.

Despite all of the suspect activity and these whistleblowers, Danske Bank did nothing and the money laundering continued into 2015. The Danish authorities cleared Borgen and the board of directors of any legal responsibility. 75 customers of Danske Bank are implicated, and Danske Bank’s Estonian branch handled the accounts of all 4 major companies involved in the Azerbaijani Laundromat.
According to Danish authorities, the main perpetrators were the Russian and Azerbaijani “Laundromat” operations.
During the period 2007-2013, 44% of all deposits at Danske Bank’s Estonian branch came from foreigners (approximately 10,000 of the branch’s customers). Between 2007 and 2015, these customers conducted 7.5 million transactions of about 200 billion euros.

Legal action against Danske Bank is expected in Denmark, the UK, and the US (no doubt without consequences for the higher management or involved politicians).
In 2015, the European Union passed legislation to convince the gullible public that something is done against the “criminals”, but in reality the money laundering will continue: https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/10/08...nancial-crime/
(archived here: http://archive.is/QdR2Y)


Madis Reimand, the head Estonia’s financial intelligence unit of Danske Bank, said his office had already found suspicious Azerbaijani cash flows in 2013.

The Azerbaijani “Laundromat” used a series of shell companies to disguise the origin of $2.9 billion (£2.2 billion) that is suspected to come from Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. Large sums came via the state-owned International Bank of Azerbaijan.
The 4 firms at the centre of the Azerbaijani Laundromat were all limited partnerships registered in the UK: Metastar Invest; Hilux Services; Polux Management; and LCM Alliance. Their corporate “partners” are anonymous entities based in the British Virgin Islands, Seychelles and Belize tax havens.

They used the Azerbaijani Laundromat to bribe prominent politicians, buy luxury goods, and launder money through a network of British shell companies.

Luca Volontè received more than €2 million via his Italian-based Novae Terrae foundation. Volontè has been indicted in Milan for money laundering and corruption.

In 2014, former CNN producer Eckart Sager (based in London), received nearly €2 million from the British companies. His PR company has promoted the Azerbaijani government and denied that Baku did anything wrong in the Volontè case.

Eduard Lintner, German MP until 2010, founded the Society for the Promotion of German-Azerbaijani Relations, which received €819,500. A €61,000 payment was made 2 weeks after Lintner returned to Berlin from a trip to Azerbaijan where he “monitored” the country’s 2013 presidential election. Lintner said the election was up to “German standards” while official election observers found “significant problems”.

In 2016, the Bulgarian Kalin Mitrev was appointed to the board of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (based in London). Mitrev received at least €425,000 for consultancy from a local Azeri company, Avuar Co. Mitrev’s wife, Irina Bokava, is the director general of Unesco that awarded the Mozart Medal to Azerbaijan’s first lady and vice-president Mehriban Aliyeva: https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...obbying-scheme
(archived here: http://archive.is/sOJLg)


Azerbaijani partners in crime of US president Donald Trump since 2012, in a project to build a Trump Tower in Baku, also appear in the Laundromat scheme.
The $35 million project was controlled by Baku XXI Century of Elton and Anar Mammadov, the brother and son of the country's transport minister Ziya Mammadov. They hold seats in parliament and have ties to Azerbaijani President Aliyev.
The Mammadovs’ Baghlan holding company is linked to Laundromat transactions.

Ziya also has connections to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard and with Iraq-Iran war veteran Keyumars Davishi, the chairman of a company which Mammadov awarded transportation contracts to in 2008.
In February 2017, defense and intelligence officials warned the White House against designating Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organisation.

Anar founded The Azerbaijan American Alliance. Between 2011 and 2015, he spent almost $13 million for lobbying in the US.
Anar Mammadov lives in London and considers Ivanka Trump a “dear friend” (see them together).


In October 2014, Ivanka Trump toured Trump Tower Baku that was scheduled to open in 2015. Ivanka wrote that she had “overseen” the project. For some reason the hotel never opened despite being almost completed.
In December 2016, before he was inaugurated, Trump cut his connection with the project: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...deal-ever.html