Toxic transaction probes label vPanama  “high risk jurisdiction”

Billions of dollars of toxic transactions passed through several of the world’s leading banks for individuals and companies targeted for massive looting of public funds, ignoring measures to combat money laundering with impunity says the US Treasury.

More than 2,100 reports of suspicious activities of banks and financial are revealed by  the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCen) which labels Panama a “high-risk jurisdiction”

The agency analyzes financial transaction information to fight crimes, such as fraud, money laundering and the financing of terrorism.

The documents, prepared by financial entities in the United States that provide the intermediation service for financial institutions around the world in the event of potentially suspicious activities, were analyzed for 16 months by about 400 journalists from about 110 media outlets in 88 countries, the product of a leak. obtained by BuzzFeed News, and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), based in the United States.

The international journalistic investigation – known as FinCen Files – shows, exclusively, the opacity with which some international banking systems are handled, the existence of anonymous clients and elements of conviction of alleged financial crimes, and that, despite the fines imposed, many banks play a fundamental role in the movement of money resulting from political corruption and organized crime.

Because of  anonymous banking clients, several FinCen reports on suspicious activities (SAR,) describe Panama as a “high-risk jurisdiction for money laundering and financial crimes.” In the reports, there are red alerts for suspicious banking transactions in the local bank. They also warn that it is common in Panamanian entities that the final beneficiaries of the money are unknown.

For example, the Bank of New York (BNY) reveals in a report to FinCen 986 suspicious transactions: “Many of the transfers were sent from, through or to jurisdictions that have been determined as having a high risk of money laundering. and other financial crimes, such as Panama, Latvia, Ukraine, Cyprus, Marshall Islands, British Virgin Islands (BVI) and  Russia”, a description that is repeated in other SARs that also highlight, for example, the existence of companies created by the defunct firm Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca.

In the leaked documents, in addition to describing the Panamanian jurisdiction as “risky”, mentions are made of companies linked to the Waked family, which have been the subject of local and foreign publications in the recent past.

In addition, suspicious reports were found from a transnational with operations in Panama. reports La Prensa  which is still probing.