Awash: Britain’s war on dirty money lacks oomph

It is strong on transparency but weak on enforcement

No one knows how much dirty money is rinsed through London, but Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA) reckons British banks and their subsidiaries (including those in overseas territories) launder “many hundreds of billions of pounds” each year. British companies and partnerships were prominent among the getaway vehicles used in some of the biggest money-laundering schemes of recent years, including the “Russian laundromat”, in which at least $20bn was siphoned out of Russia in 2010-14, and an even bigger washing exercise through Danske Bank’s Estonian branch. Much of the iffy money is ploughed into swanky British pads. Over 40,000 London properties are held by overseas firms, a quarter of them registered in the British Virgin Islands read more »

Two Former Deutsche Bank Traders Convicted for Role in Scheme to Manipulate a Critical Global Benchmark Interest Rate

A former supervisor of Deutsche Bank’s Pool Trading Desk and a former derivatives trader were convicted today in New York for their participation in a scheme to manipulate the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR), a critical global benchmark tied to trillions of dollars in derivatives, loans, mortgages, and other financial products. read more »

Hacked, scammed and on your own: navigating cryptocurrency 'wild west'

When Peggy and Marco Lachmann-Anke learned in January that hackers cracked a 40-character password and cleaned out their cryptocurrency wallet, they did not go to the police or alert the tokens’ issuer, the Berlin-based technology group IOTA.

They bought more coins.

Far from unusual, the episode is emblematic for a market where few rules apply and where investors’ faith in the blockchain technology goes hand in hand with the belief that it also helps criminals cover their tracks so well that trying to catch them is a fool’s errand. read more »