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AML

Brazil: potential money-laundering allegations against major banks

A few days ago, Bloomberg revealed that:

A $4.4 billion money-laundering probe linked to state-run Petroleo Brasileiro SA is spreading to financial institutions as prosecutors investigate whether they met compliance requirements.

Court documents cite units of banks including New York-based Citigroup Inc. (C), Madrid-based Banco Santander SA (SAN) and London-based HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA), as well as Sao Paulo-based Itau Unibanco Holding SA (ITUB4) and Osasco, Brazil-based Banco Bradesco SA (BBDC4) as holding accounts or executing operations linked to the alleged laundering of 10 billion reais. Banks either declined to comment or said they meet compliance requirements.

…Those institutions are among the top 10 biggest non-government owned banks in Brazil by assets, according to the central bank website as of March 2014. They represent 38 percent of total assets in Brazil’s financial system.

Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-08-12/petrobras-linked-money-laundering-probe-spreads-to-banks.html

Certainly, if the probe is confirmed and allegations can be proved, this could potentially represent the first case of AML prosecution involving the banking sector since the new Brazilian AML law was passed in July 2012.

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