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takyon [soylentnews.org] writes:

Leak reveals $2tn of possibly corrupt US financial activity [theguardian.com]

Thousands of documents detailing $2 trillion (£1.55tn) of potentially corrupt transactions that were washed through the US financial system have been leaked to an international group of investigative journalists.

The leak focuses on more than 2,000 suspicious activity reports (SARs) filed with the US government's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).

Banks and other financial institutions file SARs when they believe a client is using their services for potential criminal activity.

However, the filing of an SAR does not require the bank to cease doing business with the client in question.

The documents were provided to BuzzFeed News [buzzfeednews.com], which shared them with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists [icij.org].

The documents are said to suggest major banks provided financial services to high-risk individuals from around the world, in some cases even after they had been placed under sanctions by the US government.

See also: FinCEN Files: All you need to know about the documents leak [bbc.com]
FinCEN Files: Tory donor Lubov Chernukhin linked to $8m Putin ally funding [bbc.com]

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