Financial Crime Online

Thomson Reuters, based on an undisclosed source, reported that the US Justice department in looking into possibilities to prosecute HSBC bankers individually in the money laundering probe against HSBC. I understand they are meticulously doing interviews with one primary objective driven by the Justice Department on this case, which is to identify and prosecute any [...]

An end to one of the most spectacular Swiss banking criminal cases. Zurich based banker Holenweger was acquitted of money laundering charges. Eight years after Holenweger was first arrested on charges of laundering money for South American drug cartels, the Federal Criminal Court in Bellinzona on Thursday cleared him of all charges, which also included [...]

Switzerland adopted the ‘ Return of Illegal Assets Act’  a couple of years ago, allegedly in an attempt to shake off it somewhat shady image as financial safe haven for dictators. Mubarak is the next batter up. Yesterday his 30 year reign ended. That same day, his funds in Switzerland were frozen based on the [...]

Given the estimates that half of the proceeds of drug deals by Mexican cartels in the US is smuggled back to Mexico and laundered there, we can (gu)es(s)timate that total turnover is around $ 20 bn a year. It also implies that that the rest, another $ 10 bn annually, remains in the US – [...]

A very strange press conference is planned today. Swiss (ex) Julius Baer banker and ‘ whistleblower’  Rudolf Elmer is planning to handover to WikiLeaks two CDs containing data of around 2,000 bank clients who may have been evading taxes.  “The documents show that they are hiding behind bank secrecy, possibly to avoid taxes,” Elmer, a [...]

According to the Guardian, ‘ Operation Eaglewood’  led to Scotland Yard’s largest-ever simultaneous raid in February 2008. The investigation focused on money laundering and cocaine distribution. A taxi cab business was in the middle of the laundering scheme; is was used as a front store. 33 gang members were sentenced. From the information that surfaced, [...]

The US DOJ reported that former (JP Morgan) vice president James Hertz ´Pleads Guilty for Role in Bid-rigging and Fraud Conspiracies Involving Municipal Bonds´. JP Morgan was was a provider of investment agreements and other municipal finance contracts, such as swaps, to public entities. Public entities typically hire a broker to conduct a competitive bidding [...]

So let’s say you made a mistake and invested your money in a ponzi scheme. By the time you find out about your mistake, the bad guy is probably broke. How to recoup your money. Sue the bank; that is where the money is. Not your money (that went to boats, juwelry, cars, real estate [...]

Another rogue banker…. This banker at the Oberbank in Austria is reported to have embezzled over 8 million euros of client’s funds. Internal controls apparently did not pick up the abnormalities until this month while the fraud started in May 2008. The banker allegedly forged client’s signatures to transfer money to accounts in Hungary to [...]

The police in Gurgaon arrested a Citibank relationship banker, Shivraj Puri, in a multi ($70m) million dollar fraud. Puri allegedly opened over 70 bankaccounts in his name and in the name of relatives with several banks in India. The banker lured high net worth clients of Citibank into a bogus Citibank investment program. He promised [...]