Thread by @karolcummins

💰FBME Bank 👉🏼Cyprus👉🏼Russia
👉🏼Aaron Banks 👉🏼Trump👉🏼Manafort

Ongoing Probe:

"Money laundering, terrorist financing, transnational organized crime, fraud schemes, sanctions evasion, weapons proliferation, corruption by politically exposed persons, & other financial crimes”.

Officers from the NCA, in collaboration with MI5 and US intelligence agencies, are examining previously undisclosed links between Aaron Banks and Russia, amid fears Moscow may have played a potentially sinister role in the #Brexit referendum. #AaronBanks
thetimes.co.uk/article/more-m…

May 2019 Cypriot police raided the premises of FBME Bank in Nicosia and in Limassol, looking for evidence of money laundering
occrp.org/en/daily/9851-…

The investigation concerns “many cases” of legalization of illegal proceeds from various activities, including drug smuggling, as well as terrorism financing,
occrp.org/en/daily/9851-…

The raided bank’s headquarters is in Tanzania and has two service points in Cyprus.

In July 2014, the US Treasury’s Financial Crime Enforcement Network (FinCEN) described FBME Bank as a “financial institution of primary money laundering concern”
#Cyprus
occrp.org/en/daily/9851-…

📌FinCEN had identified that FBME Bank was facilitating "money laundering, terrorist financing, transnational organized crime, fraud schemes, sanctions evasion, weapons proliferation, corruption by politically exposed persons, and other financial crime”.
occrp.org/en/daily/9851-…

📌Police in Cyprus have launched a criminal investigation into FBME Bank investigating money laundering linked to the Kremlin, Syrian chemical weapons, organized crime, and ISIS.

#TerrorismFunding
buzzfeednews.com/article/tomwar…

🔑The files exposed a web of accounts at FBME, which moved millions of dollars from suspect Moscow-based figures, including associates of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
buzzfeednews.com/amphtml/tomwar…

🔑More leaked documents showed how Deutsche Bank approved hundreds of millions of dollars of FBME transactions, providing a crucial bridge between the bank and the global financial system.
buzzfeednews.com/amphtml/tomwar…

📌US Treasury Department accused FBME of having weak money-laundering controls that allowed customers to conduct more than $1 billion in suspicious transactions through various correspondent accounts,
bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

🔑Including one with Deutsche Bank’s U.S. unit, from 2006 to 2014.

🔑Treasury officials said FBME helped organized crime and terror groups move money, evade sanctions and develop banned weapons.
bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

🔑The “mirror trades” scandal surfaced another issue: Warning bells sounded at the U.S. investigations unit after another European bank questioned some of the transactions, but the unit failed to follow up, according to an internal Deutsche report
bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

💰Mirror trades💰

https://twitter.com/karolcummins/status/1113603623840243712?s=21

In 2017 a consent order issued against the bank by NY’s Dep’t of Financial Services.

Beyond that, Deutsche bank didn’t even deem Russia to be at high risk for financial crime until late 2014 -- much later than its peers -- according to that 2017 order.
bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

6/19: Leaked docs reveal major American law firms battled to keep the bank in business, and top accounting firms overlooked glaring signs of money laundering.

buzzfeednews.com/amphtml/tomwar…

FBME had hired two of the world’s most prestigious law firms, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan and Hogan Lovells, to fight the dollar ban –& put the bank’s compliance chief front and centre in their defence against the US government’s allegations.
compliancex.com/revealed-secre…

📌The partner leading the case for Quinn Emanuel was William Burck, who was special counsel to GWB and is now representing two key WH figures in the inquiry into whether Trump’s presidential campaign colluded with Russia.

Imagine that! 🤔
compliancex.com/revealed-secre…

📌While accountants at two of the world’s biggest accountancy firms, KPMG and Ernst & Young, gave the bank their gold-plated seals of approval despite glaring red flags
buzzfeed.com/alexcampbell/k…

💦💰Accounting Firms💰💦

Get in your Barrels...
#Estonia #DanskeBank #FBME #ErnstAndYoung #KPMG #DeutscheBank #SwedeBank

https://twitter.com/karolcummins/status/1116755395043680256?s=21

🔑The request for information about FBME Bank comes as Cyprus has emerged as a key area of interest for Robert Mueller, the US special counsel who investigated a possible conspiracy between Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and the Kremlin. #SDNY
theguardian.com/us-news/2017/d…

💰Bank of Cyprus & TeamTrump

https://twitter.com/karolcummins/status/1147228331944714240?s=21

This appeared to be connected to Mueller’s ongoing examination of Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign manager who was indicted in October, and money that flowed between former Soviet states and the US through Cypriot bank #Cyprus
theguardian.com/us-news/2017/d…

The owners of FBME are Lebanese brothers Ayoub-Farid Saab and Fadi Michel Saab
theguardian.com/us-news/2017/d…

📌FBME was the subject of two US investigations: one into the bank’s credit card unit, and another into alleged laundering of money from Russia.
theguardian.com/us-news/2017/d…

🔑The Russia-related investigation, which is being led by the US attorney’s office in New York, is connected to a flow of illegal Russian funds into the New York real estate market. #SDNY
theguardian.com/us-news/2017/d…

📌The bank was evading efforts by the Central Bank of Cyprus to supervise its activities, & that FBME was facilitating money laundering, terrorist financing, transnational organised crime, fraud, sanctions evasion, weapons trading & political corruption.
theguardian.com/us-news/2017/d…

FBME, previously known as the Federal Bank of the Middle East, was based in Tanzania but about 90% of its banking was conducted in #Cyprus.
theguardian.com/us-news/2017/d…

FBME had banking relationships with several RUs who are politically sensitive clients & that about half of the bank’s clients were RU nationals, including Vladimir Smirnov, who is close to Putin, & Aleksandr Shishkin, a member of Putin’s political party.
theguardian.com/us-news/2017/d…

📌FBME was subjected in 2016 to what is known as a “fifth special measure”, a hard-hitting US regulatory tool that was established after the 9/11 attacks to address law enforcement concerns in the banking sector.
theguardian.com/us-news/2017/d…

📌The move prohibited the bank from doing business in the US or using US dollars, & barred US banks from opening or using any bank accounts on FBME’s behalf. In effect, it shut the bank down. US courts have upheld the move.
theguardian.com/us-news/2017/d…

Fall 2017 Mueller’s team has separately issued a subpoena for information from Deutsche Bank. The German bank is Trump’s biggest lender.
irishtimes.com/news/world/us/…

🔑Deutsche also worked as a correspondent bank for FBME. Internal emails show that executives from both banks were in contact in 2014 discussing accounts that were “on the radar” of US law enforcement.
irishtimes.com/news/world/us/…

💰FBME Bank & The Magnitsky Act

The MA (enacted 2012) barred “human rights offenders” from access to the US financial system, the de facto controller of the movement of global capital. Virtually all the world’s money moves through the US SWIFT system.
amp.sacbee.com/opinion/califo…

🔑According to one source in Cyprus who asked not to be named because ‘Putin’s thugs might come to my door and kill me,’ as much as $500 million found its way from Russia into FBME,
amp.sacbee.com/opinion/califo…

🔑The “human rights offenders” were 18 individuals likely connected to the Russian mafia and/or the gov’t.

🔑The Magnitsky Act was passed by Congress in 2012 to punish the killers of Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer beaten to death in a Russian jail in 2009.
amp.sacbee.com/opinion/califo…

🔑The law sequestering the funds has enraged Russians including Putin, whose money is believed to be scattered across the planet, including Spanish real estate and London luxury flats.
amp.sacbee.com/opinion/califo…

🔑Magnitsky sought to investigate the theft of $243 million from Hermitage Capital, the brainchild of William Browder, an American who was once the biggest investor in Russian stocks.
amp.sacbee.com/opinion/califo…

🔑Browder said the Panama Papers showed some of his money had landed in the accounts of cellist Sergei Roldugin, godfather to Putin’s children.

🔑Asked if Putin was ultimately behind the theft, Browder said the connections make it likely.
amp.sacbee.com/opinion/califo…

🔑Much of the $243 million, and probably far more, landed in the Cyprus branch of Tanzanian bank FBME, illustrating the scam.
asiasentinel.com/econ-business/…

🔑FBME is to international banking what Jackson Hole was to America’s Wild West outlaws.

🔑Its clients are alleged to include the Russian Mafia, Indonesian, Japanese and Thai money launderers, the Yakuza, phishing scams, international drug syndicates,
amp.sacbee.com/opinion/califo…

🔑FBME clients’ include the manufacturers of sarin nerve gas for Syrian President Bashar Assad.

🔑Shell entities with suspected links to Hezbollah’s financial operations are among the bank’s 6,500 accounts.

💰💦 finances #Terrorism
amp.sacbee.com/opinion/califo…

🔑Dont forget the centerpiece of the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting with Veselnitskaya and her Russian colleagues were there to ask – as she has in other venues – to void the Magnitsky Act.

🔑Putin wants his money back & sanctions lifted.
amp.sacbee.com/opinion/califo…

📌A day after the Trump adm lifted Russian sanctions for RU oligarch Deripaska’s Rusal EN+, Christopher Burnham, a former member of Trump’s transition team, landed a spot on that company’s board of directors.

Imagine that!🙄
hillreporter.com/day-after-sanc…

🔑Timeline of Trump's delays on Russia sanctions
abcnews.go.com/Politics/timel…

It always seems to circle back to the Kremlin & TeamTrump’s desire to lift the Magnitsky Act sanctions.

https://twitter.com/karolcummins/status/1114767403643166720?s=21

@threadreaderapp unroll please and thank you!

#FBME
#Banks
#Trump
#Manafort
#Cyprus
#Putin
#DeutscheBank
#MirrorTrades
#QuinnEmanuel
#KPMG
#ErnstAndYoung
#AyoubFaridSaab
#FadiMichelSaab
#Smirnov
#Shishkin
#Magnitsky
#SergeiRoldugin
#Assad
#TerrorismFunding
#Veselnitskaya
💰💦

https://twitter.com/thomass4217/status/1147730455237660673?s=21