Between 2010 and 2017, a number of Indian banks, irrespective of ownership – public, private and foreign -- helped facilitate transactions red-flagged by the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) for suspected money laundering, terrorism, drug dealing and financial fraud, latest leaks suggest.
International Consortium of Investigative Journalism (ICIJ) obtained the top-secret Suspicious Activity Reports or SARs, worth more than $2 trillion globally. These transactions are not outright evidence of frauds or proof of nefarious activities, but are red-flagged by the US authority as suspicious.
While the data dump is available on the organisation’s website, so far it has meticulously tracked down 18,153 transactions totaling $35 billion, in which links between both sending and beneficiary banks have been established. The transactions were done between 2000 and 2017.
In case of India, the FinCEN files so far have established sender-receiver connections for 406 transactions involving all major banks, including the country's largest, State Bank of India.
According to the leaks Indian banks received $482,181,226 from outside the country and transferred from India $406,278,962. These transactions were red flagged to the US authorities.
A few large transactions are worth mentioning here.
Standard Chartered Bank, in a single transaction, transferred Merrill Lynch Bank Suisse Sa $8,173,378 on Jul 9, 2011. Bank of India received $119,548,135 in 19 transactions from DBS Bank between Nov 4, 2015 and Apr 14, 2016.
DBS Bank sent Allahabad Bank $144,248,998 through 26 transactions, between Nov 6, 2015 and Feb 23, 2016. Singapore-headquartered DBS also sent $162,381,261 to Indian Overseas Bank through 21 transactions done between Nov 3, 2015 and Apr 14, 2016.
Deutsche Bank AG sent its local Indian arm Deutsche Bank in India $53,520,418 in two transactions between Oct 25, 2012 and Nov 26, 2012.
India’s HDFC Bank sent Standard Chartered Bank $327,999,890 through 11 transactions between Sep 24, 2012 and Feb 15, 2013.
IndusInd Bank transferred HSBC $8,260,868 between Jun 13, 2008 and Nov 7, 2012 in 55 transactions. State Bank of India (SBI) transferred $5,791,055 to DNB Nor Bank Asa in 9 transactions between Jan 25, 2012 and Oct 9, 2012. SBI received $ 23,325,000 from Rak Bank through 6 transactions done between Mar 2, 2014 and Mar 23, 2014.
State owned Canara Bank received $ 2,761,523 from National Bk of Ras Al Khaimah Psc between Jul 24, 2013 and Nov 7, 2013 through 20 transactions. Bank of India received $11,214,476 from Rizal Commercial Banking Corp in 16 transactions between Jan 13, 2010 and Dec 23, 2010.
The latest transactions traced was where DBS Bank transferred $1,878,000 to Bank of Baroda between Jul 5, 2016 and Jul 5, 2016 in three transactions.
Even a small bank such as Tamilnad Mercantile Bank received $185,626 from Standard Chartered Bank between Dec 9, 2010 and Dec 24, 2010 in three transactions.
So far, ICJI has named these Indian banks in the dubious transactions -- State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, Union Bank of India, HDFC Bank, Indusind Bank, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Yes Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, Canara Bank, Bank of Maharashtra, Karur Vysya Bank, Tamilnad Mercantile Bank, Standard Chartered Bank (India operations), Bank of Baroda, Bank of India, Allahabad Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, Indian Bank, Deutsche Bank (India operations), UCO Bank, Karnataka Bank, RBS, Andhra Bank, and Vijaya Bank.
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