Thousands of leaked documents shared with hundreds of journalists reveal how some of the world's biggest banks have for years facilitated the movement of dirty money.
The documents are part of a collection of files that belongs to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, an agency operating under the Treasury Department to detect and prevent financial crimes, and were first published by Buzzfeed and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.
The agency is in charge of compiling "suspicious activity reports" when it detects potential or evident financial crimes. The documents are distributed and shared with law enforcement and financial intelligence groups around the world, but the agency does not force banks engaging in financial crimes to stop, BuzzFeed News, which obtained the leaked documents, reported.
The report said banks such as JPMorgan Chase, HSBC, and Deutsche Bank, among others, engaged with and facilitated the movement of criminal money even after getting caught.
The files detail movements and transactions for almost two decades, starting from 2000 and continuing into 2017.
"These documents, compiled by banks, shared with the government, but kept from public view, expose the hollowness of banking safeguards, and the ease with which criminals have exploited them," Buzzfeed reported. "Profits from deadly drug wars, fortunes embezzled from developing countries, and hard-earned savings stolen in a Ponzi scheme were all allowed to flow into and out of these financial institutions, despite warnings from the banks' own employees."
Here are some of the biggest revelations to come out of the bombshell report: