Banks earn money from the dubious deals of oligarchs, drug dealers and terrorists - a network around BuzzFeed News has now uncovered that.
In the interview, disclosure reporter Marcus Engert reports on the research.
Major
international
banks
, including
Deutsche Bank
, benefit from the business of criminals.
They are said to have moved
suspicious transfers
worth more than
two trillion dollars
and in some cases did not report them to the authorities at all or only long afterwards.
More than 400 journalists from 88 countries evaluated this for 16 months:
The unveiling of the “FinCEN files”
.
The Germany office of BuzzFeed News *, which belongs to the Ippen-Digital network, was also involved.
We spoke to Marcus Engert about the research work.
Marcus, the so-called FinCEN files reveal large gaps in the fight against money laundering. How did you get the documents?
Of course, we won't say who leaked the documents to us, it's subject to source protection.
What we can reveal is that these are classified documents from the U.S. Treasury that BuzzFeed News shared with the ICIJ and 108 other editorial offices in May 2019.
Since then, hundreds of journalists all over the world have been working on it.
FinCEN-Files: Banks earn money from dubious deals - Reporter Engert: "That is too blatant, we can never do it alone to rummage through"
How did Buzzfeed News proceed then?
We quickly realized: It's too blatant, we'll never be able to rummage through it on our own.
Mind you, this is about 22,000 pages.
So we included the international network of investigative journalists, the ICIJ.
The ICIJ has a lot of experience with such delicate research and the technical resources to deal with it through the processing of the Panama Papers.
The ICIJ first checked whether journalists should even touch this data record, although it is not legal to pass it on.
After all, it is about documents classified as secret, which are also subject to banking secrecy.
The ICIJ, like us, felt that the public interest in what was going on took precedence.
More than 400 journalists from 88 countries were then involved in the research.
How can so many journalists work together?
The ICIJ is setting up an online platform where all documents are located.
You shouldn't print it out or save it - this also applies to your own protection.
There are many sub-groups on this platform, such as one that deals with the illegal gold trade or another with arms deals.
You can then ask questions there, for example: “The name of a company from Saudi Arabia keeps coming up.
Does anyone know? ”It's actually like Facebook, only everything is well encrypted and secured.
Was it possible for you to get external help, for example from former bankers who are familiar with money laundering?
There are very clear rules for the journalists involved.
Most of the time, we weren't allowed to talk to anyone about the documents.
You are on your own.
It is also problematic to show other people leaked documents - we don't want to get anyone into legal trouble.
In the last few weeks, however, we have already had expert discussions.
These were also shared by the journalists in the online forum.
Of course, we also confronted the banks with our findings.
As far as I know, however, hardly any bank has given a detailed position on the content.
This is not surprising, because often they are not allowed to either, as the documents are subject to banking secrecy.
Was there a moment when you felt queasy while doing research? It's also about bank customers who are involved in highly criminal machinations.
These documents are incredibly complicated and lengthy to read.
That is why what is disclosed there often does not seem real at all, but like a bureaucratic act. I have never felt endangered.
But in the past few weeks it has become clear to me that it looks different for journalists in some other countries - that they may have to fear that the police will suddenly be at their door.
The US Treasury Department recently announced in a statement that it had heard that journalists were preparing a publication that it was illegal and that they had therefore passed the matter on to law enforcement authorities.
What exactly were you looking for in your research? You need a goal when you're sitting in front of such a mess of documents, right?
To many, participating in such a large research effort sounds incredibly exciting.
Unfortunately it is like this: Most of it is not exciting at all.
You sit alone at your desk and torment your way through these bureaucratic documents.
For months we just read and entered names and facts in Excel tables to find connections.
The aim of the research was to find out how the system works.
So for example: How do the banks formulate the suspicious transaction reports for money laundering?
How do you justify making questionable transfers anyway?
First of all, it was about the overview.
I think that little by little completely different stories will emerge - about special criminal customers and their machinations, for example.
Every journalist involved has chosen the focus of their own research anyway.
FinCen-Files: "The banks often do not live up to their social responsibility here"
What was the main finding of your research for you?
I find it incredibly blatant that there are people sitting in the banks who write such suspicious transaction reports - and they certainly know that they are waving money through here that can be used to buy weapons, for example.
But I also know that these bankers are often extremely frustrated in their jobs.
They are under great pressure in the money houses - because the banks want to do the business and want their employees in the money laundering departments to look for arguments as to why this is also possible.
On the other hand, there are seldom inquiries from the investigative authorities about the suspicion reports, which simply disappear into nowhere.
Without the banks, criminals could not do their business.
The banks often fail to meet their social responsibility here.
(Interview conducted by Nina Luttmer)
There are more results of the international research in the story of the disclosure of the “FinCEN-Files” at BuzzFeed News Germany.
* BuzzFeed News Germany is part of the Ippen-Digital network and reports on corruption and abuse of power. If you want to reach the reporters: recherche@buzzfeed.com
