Tuesday, July 31, 2012

IRAN HAS A FANTASTIC RULE IN DEALING WITH FRAUD ARTISTS |

IRAN SENTENCES WHITE COLLAR CRIMINALS TO DEATH FOR STEALING TRILLIONS |



Yes, you read the headline correctly, that is trillions of Rials. Iran's Revolutionary Court has sentenced two embezzlers to death, and gave two others life sentences, in a case that appears to be the country's largest financial scandal to date. A total of thirty nine other defendants were also sentenced to prison terms of up to 25 years. Another report, unconfirmed, states that four were given the death penalty.



Reportedly, the defendants obtained forged Letters of Credit, which they used to get loans for the ostensible purpose of purchasing state-owned companies that were being privatised. The identities of the defendants are being withheld; Bank Melli, Iran's largest bank, is thought to be one of the banks defrauded.

Bank Melli


 The capital defendants were charged with "Corruption on Earth," a criminal charge that declares the individual is an enemy of God.  As soon as more details are disclosed, we shall publish the information.

Iranian justice

Monday, July 23, 2012

ECUADOR OPENS DOOR TO IRAN MONEY LAUNDERING | MONTE FRIESNER FINANCIAL NEWS |

YOU WERE WARNED ABOUT ECUADOR FIVE YEARS AGO|

 
FROM THE - JOURNALS of Monte Friesner Criminal & Intelligence Analyst and Consulaire for WANTED SA ~
 
Contributed & Written by Kenneth Rijock
 


All the recent media chatter about Ecuador being a conduit for Iranian sanctions evasion, especially the fact that the Central Bank of Ecuador, through a private bank* that it controls, begs the question: who is paying attention in your compliance department ?

(1) Several years ago, yours truly disclosed details of a classified memorandum from the Director of Compliance at the Central Bank of Ecuador.  That document discussed ways to evade the consequences of international sanctions against Iran, whilst generating expanded banking with financial institutions in Iran. This information appeared in a major article that I wrote.


(2) Thor Halvorssen, the former Anti-Drug Minister in the last democratic Venezuelan government, in a major television appearance, discussed Ecuador's increasing links with Iran, at that time. The information was widely covered in the Spanish-language press.
Ambassador Halvorssen


Inasmuch as the official currency in the Republic of Ecuador is the US Dollar, Ecuadorian banks can easily assist Iran in obtaining the coveted dollars its needs to continue to purchase dual-use goods for its illegal WMD and ballistic missile programmes.


I wonder whether there is anyone in the compliance departments, at major international banks, who was actually there on staff five years ago. Where is the storehouse of accumulated compliance knowledge that is supposed to reside within the brains of staff?
 
WANTED SA kindly thanks US Treasury, Kenneth Rijock, AFP, Reuters, BBC, Associated Press, DEA, FBI, ICE, Westlaw, Arutz Sheva, and all the Parties, Press, Journalists, Law Enforcement and Securities forces  who have contributed to the many articles and their sincere opinions and statements.
 
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_________________________________________________________________________
 *Cofiec Bank

Sunday, July 22, 2012

LEBANON IS A MAJOR MONEY LAUNDERING CENTER | MONTE FRIESNER FINANCIAL NEWS |

IT IS TIME TO DESIGNATE LEBANON AS A JURISDICTION OF PRIMARY MONEY LAUNDERING CONCERN |

FROM THE - JOURNALS of Monte Friesner Criminal & Intelligence Analyst and Consulaire for WANTED SA ~
 
Contributed & Written by Kenneth Rijock
 
 
 
It is high time for the United States to designate Lebanon as a jurisdiction of primary money laundering concern. A major American NGO* has actually asked Deka International SA, in Luxembourg, to divest itself of Lebanese sovereign bonds. Its argument tracks issues with which we we are all, sadly, very familiar:

(1) Hezbollah is laundering drug trafficking & smuggling profits through the purchase of Lebanese sovereign debt.
 
(2) The Lebanese banking system generally accepts large cash deposits without question.
 
(3) Iranian sanctions evasion efforts are facilitated by passing funds through Lebanese banks.
 
(4) Terrorist financing, for a number of specially designated global terrorist organisations, flows through Lebanese banks.
For some reason, the United States, which supports the beleaguered national government in Beirut, has utterly failed to deal with the reality. With Hezbollah, which is in actual control of several ministerial posts, several banks, and the entire southern portion of the country, funded in large part by Iran, it seems that there's no other choice.

If I was a director of compliance at a major international bank in the EU, or North America, I would take a hard look at all my clients' financial transactions with the Lebanese financial system, and close accounts that pose a risk to the bank forthwith. I would not want my bank to be found later to be a terrorist facilitator.

Will the US designate Lebanon ?
 

WANTED SA kindly thanks US Treasury, Kenneth Rijock, AFP, Reuters, BBC, Associated Press, DEA, FBI, ICE, Westlaw, Arutz Sheva, and all the Parties, Press, Journalists, Law Enforcement and Securities forces  who have contributed to the many articles and their sincere opinions and statements.

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Saturday, July 21, 2012

KENNETH RIJOCK BOOK "THE LAUNDRY MAN" IS NOW IN SPANISH

THE SPANISH-LANGUAGE VERSION - LAVADO DE DINERO |


FROM THE - JOURNALS of Monte Friesner Criminal & Intelligence Analyst and Consulaire for WANTED SA ~
 
Contributed & Written by Kenneth Rijock
 
Readers for whom Spanish is their first language will be able to purchase The Laundry Man  in Spanish in August. Above you will find a photo of the cover.  The publisher is Ediciones B in Mexico City. The title is Lavado de Dinero.
 
* NOTE: The exciting book "The Laundry Man" by author Kenneth Rijock is a tremendous success in the USA, Canada and Europe, and now is in print in Spanish and available in many fine book stores and on the Internet.

WANTED SA kindly thanks US Treasury, Kenneth Rijock, AFP, Reuters, BBC, Associated Press, DEA, FBI, ICE, Westlaw, Arutz Sheva, and all the Parties, Press, Journalists, Law Enforcement and Securities forces  who have contributed to the many articles and their sincere opinions and statements.

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Friday, July 20, 2012

HSBC - "WORLD'S LOCAL MONEY LAUNDERING BANK" | MONTE FRIESNER FINANCIAL NEWS |

WHAT TO DO WITH HSBC MONEY LAUNDERERS?


FROM THE - JOURNALS of Monte Friesner Criminal & Intelligence Analyst and Consulaire for WANTED SA ~
 
Contributed & Written by Kenneth Rijock


If you have read the three hundred page Senate Report on HCBC, you know that a significant number of senior bank executives, compliance officers, risk management officers, and managers committed acts that facilitated the laundering of proceeds of crime, or facilitated terrorist financing, or breached international sanctions. In my world, we call many of those actions money laundering.

Whether they are still at the bank, or now work elsewhere, or are now engaged in other occupations or professions, or have quickly and quietly retired ,the question remains: what, if anything, should we do about them ? Obviously, a very small number could be charged with a crime, but then again, they may all escape accountability. ACAMS should revoke their CAMS designations, for their actions went far beyond simple compliance malpractice, and became intentional torts. It is a shame that there will be no arrests.

Note well that the primary bad actor in the Pinochet scandal, who was the accounts relationship officer for Pinochet and his attorney at two banks, was never charged. I later tracked him down; he had actually obtained a real estate license, and was working in Miami's exclusive Coconut Grove district. Was justice served there ? No.


I recommend that, if you work in compliance, you extract the identities of the most egregious HSBC offenders, all of whom are named and shamed in the Senate Report, and send it on to Human Resources, so that none of those money launderers ever are offered positions at your bank. Otherwise, the stellar recommendations from HSBC that they arrive with may result in their employment in the office next to you.

WANTED SA kindly thanks US Treasury, Kenneth Rijock, AFP, Reuters, BBC, Associated Press, DEA, FBI, ICE, Westlaw, Arutz Sheva, and all the Parties, Press, Journalists, Law Enforcement and Securities forces  who have contributed to the many articles and their sincere opinions and statements.
 
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Wednesday, July 18, 2012

IRAN SUPPORTS MURDERS OF TOURISTS | MONTE FRIESNER BREAKING NEWS |

DOES BULGARIAN ATTACK SIGNAL A NEW PHASE FOR TERRORISM IN EUROPE?


FROM THE - JOURNALS of Monte Friesner Criminal & Intelligence Analyst and Consulaire for WANTED SA ~
 
Contributed & Written by Kenneth Rijock


An attack on a busload of Israeli tourists, on a bus in the airport, in the Black Sea resort of Burgas,  Bulgaria, has left seven dead and two dozen injured. Due to the fact that the attack came on the anniversary of the 1994 attack on the Jewish Community Centre in Buenos Aires, responsibility for the attack had been laid upon Iran by Israel.



Whether this is the shape of things to come is too early to tell; the Iranian economy is visibly suffering from international sanctions designed to impede illegal WMD and ballistic missile programmes. Is this terrorist attack the first in a series, intended to create chaos in Europe, damage economic recovery, and therefore raise country risk in the EU ? We cannot say, but we will be watching closely for further attacks or incidents, and analysing their impact on risk.


WANTED SA kindly thanks US Treasury, Kenneth Rijock, AFP, Reuters, BBC, Associated Press, DEA, FBI, ICE, Westlaw, Arutz Sheva, and all the Parties, Press, Journalists, Law Enforcement and Securities forces  who have contributed to the many articles and their sincere opinions and statements.

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Tuesday, July 17, 2012

HSBC PROUD OF SUPPORTING TERRORISTS

SHOULD HSBC GET THE DEATH PENALTY?

 
FROM THE - JOURNALS of Monte Friesner Criminal & Intelligence Analyst and Consulaire for WANTED SA ~
Contributed & Written by Kenneth Rijock


Most compliance officers are fully aware that USA Regulators have the power to impose the "death penalty" (charter or license revocation), upon financial institutions, for egregious conduct. They also know that no US bank has ever been hit with that sanction. Perhaps now that time has come, as one compliance horror story after another unfolds in the HSBC scandal.

When a bank, over a period of a decade, launders not only criminal proceeds, but facilitates terrorist financing, this constitutes what lawyers call willful, wanton and reckless conduct. Such behaviour deserves a punitive response, so that justice may be done. I did see that one of the US Senators involved in the Congressional investigation mention loss of charter as a remedy, but do US regulators have the intestinal fortitude to take such drastic action ?


So long as the directors of the world's largest banks know that they will receive only a financial slap on the wrist, and a required upgrading of their compliance departments, the system of pandering to high net-worth clients, who are an important profit centre for the bank, will continue unabated. Maybe it is high time to nail up one of the biggest violators, so that their competitors will take note.

There are a number of different HSBC corporate entities operating in the United States. Should a few of them have their charters revoked ? What do you think ?


WANTED SA kindly thanks US Treasury, Kenneth Rijock, AFP, Reuters, BBC, Associated Press, DEA, FBI, ICE, Westlaw, Arutz Sheva, and all the Parties, Press, Journalists, Law Enforcement and Securities forces  who have contributed to the many articles and their sincere opinions and statements.
 
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Monday, July 16, 2012

US LAW ENFORCEMENT PREVENTING COMMUNICATION WITH VIKTOR BOUT |

VIKTOR BOUT SENT TO "GUANTANAMO NORTH" TO SERVE HIS SENTENCE |

FROM THE - JOURNALS of Monte Friesner Criminal & Intelligence Analyst and Consulaire for WANTED SA ~
Contributed & Written by Kenneth Rijock


Convicted arms trafficker Viktor Bout, whose Bureau of Prisons designation to Colorado's 'Supermax" prison, which houses the worst inmates in the Federal prison system, was cancelled,  has been sent to the Communication Management Unit (CMU) at United States Prison Marion, which has been called Little Guantanamo by those who have been there, and is literally a prison within a prison.

CMUs, as they are referred to, are designed to minimise contact between a radical inmate and the outside world.  Since 9/11, some imprisoned radical islamists have sought to communicate with their associates, to continue their terrorist operations, and then there is the case involving the imprisoned plotters of the first World Trade Centre bombing, and their lawyer*, who was convicted of facilitating such communications. The CMU was apparently created to house convicted terrorists, like Al-Qaeda and Al-Shabaab, whose members have been placed there, but animal rights and environmental activists have also been designated there, much to the dismay of legal observers, who assert that such severe counter-terrorism measures should not be used against non-terrorists.

USP Marion

The conditions at a CMU are more restrictive than the BOPs Special Housing Units, or SHU, where I spent a couple of completely isolated weeks whilst I was in custody. At a CMU, inmate privileges  are severely circumscribed:

(1) One 15-minute outside telephone call per week, which must be in English, and is monitored and recorded. Calls to the inmate's attorney are not monitored.

(2) Four hours of visitation per month; contact visits are not permitted, the visit is through thick glass, using a telephone to communicate.

(3) The inmates have no contact with one another, and take all meals in their cell.

(4) There is no access to vocational training, nor is prison employment available.

In short, it is an extremely restrictive environment, designed to frankly eliminate any chance that a convicted terrorist can network with other inmates, or get a message to his organisation on the outside.

Aerial view

I understand the need to protect society from terrorists, but Viktor Bout, by any definition of the term, does not fit the mold of dangerous terrorist. Whilst his criminal conviction was for attempting to assist the FARC to perform a terrorist act, he himself is an arms dealer; You cannot label him a terrorist, and hide him away from the public, for purely political reasons.


Why such severe treatment for Bout ? I can only venture a guess, based upon conversations with those who have crossed paths with him in the past. Viktor Bout's assistance to the United States, over the course of several years, and in many different venues, is an aspect of his life that the United States Government would prefer remains hidden in the shadows, especially his former relationship with our secretive intelligence services.

So he remains locked down, and unable to freely communicate his "war stories" to others. Was that the real intention of the Department of Justice and the Bureau of Prisons, perhaps ?
____________________________________________________________________
Appeals Court affirms lawyer's 10-year Sentence

Sunday, July 15, 2012

HSBC IS THE CHOICE BANK FOR HAMAS, IRAN & HEZBOLLAH | TERRORIST GROUPS | MONTE FRIESNER BREAKING NEWS |

IS A $1 BILLION DOLLAR FINE FOR HSBC AN EFFECTIVE PUNISHMENT?

 
FROM THE - JOURNALS of Monte Friesner Intelligence Analyst & Consulaire for WANTED SA ~
Contributed & Written by Kenneth Rijock



For those of you that are astounded that our regulators might actually levy a record fine upon HSBC, for anti-money laundering deficiencies, please note:

(1) The bank's net profits last year were $16.8bn, up 27%.  Ignoring compliance requirements obviously paid off.
(2) The bank has been promising regulators that it would improve its AML/CFT programme for the past nine years. Obviously, its culture values income over adherence to the USA PATRIOT Act and the Bank Secrecy Act. You can't tell me that they did not have sufficient time to clean things up.
(3) Testimony made public showed that the bank deliberately failed to report suspected Hamas & Hezbollah transactions, and threatened to fire compliance staff who brought these matters up. Perhaps a prison terms for that compliance supervisors whop engaged in the cover-up might wake up bank ownership in the United States, as well as compliance officers who cave in to relationship managers.
(4) Bottom line,  any $1bn fine would be considered by the bank simply THE COST OF DOING BUSINESS when it is only 1/16 of profits.


In my humble opinion; file criminal charges against the bank, put it on probation for nine years, and send residential auditors in, to keep the bankers there honest. And close some US branches, say in Delaware and in New York City. Since HSBC chose to close their Regional Anti-Money Laundering Centre in Buffalo, New York, let's also hope that regulators close down some of their retail banking operations.
 
WANTED SA kindly thanks US Treasury, Kenneth Rijock, AFP, Reuters, BBC, Associated Press, DEA, FBI, ICE, Westlaw, Arutz Sheva, and all the Parties, Press, Journalists, Law Enforcement and Securities forces  who have contributed to the many articles and their sincere opinions and statements.

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Thursday, July 12, 2012

TD CANADA TRUST CLOSING ACCOUNTS OF IRANIANS TO COMPLY WITH SANCTIONS AGAINST IRAN | MONTE FRIESNER BREAKING NEWS |

TD Bank Closing Some Customer Accounts to Comply with Economic Sanctions Against Iran


FROM THE - JOURNALS of Monte Friesner Intelligence Analyst & Consulaire for WANTED SA ~
Contributed by Ottawa Citizen

A major Canadian bank has begun to close the accounts of some of its customers to comply with new federal regulations that govern economic sanctions against Iran.

http://www.wantedsa.com/index.php?option=com_extrasearch&view=details&listing_id=595&Itemid=179&establename=articles

TD Bank Group has confirmed it has been sending letters to clients telling them under recent changes to the Special Economic Measures (Iran) Regulation, Canadian financial institutions are forbidden from providing financial services to anyone in Iran or for the benefit of Iran.


That appears to include any use of an account to send or receive money via wire transfer to or from friends and family in Iran.

http://www.wantedsa.com/index.php?option=com_extrasearch&view=details&listing_id=373&Itemid=179&establename=articles

So far, it seems no other Canadian bank has taken similar action, but TD Bank Group spokesperson Mohammed Nakhooda said the bank is simply following regulations set out by the Canadian government.
A CIBC spokesperson said the bank has frozen some accounts in compliance with federal regulations.

But CIBC does not appear to have gone to the same lengths as TD. Officials from other banks were not available for comment Thursday.

TD said it tried to contact customers who were affected by the regulations, and in cases where they did not hear back, the bank was forced to close their accounts, Nakhooda said.


http://www.wantedsa.com/index.php?option=com_extrasearch&view=details&listing_id=602&Itemid=179&establename=articles

In no way is TD targeting the Iranian Canadian community,” Nakhooda said Thursday. “We are simply following regulations set out by the sanctions.”

According to the Iranian Canadian Congress, many Iranian-Canadians across Canada have received these letters.

One of them is an Iranian-Canadian woman from lower British Columbia who received a letter June 28. The Citizen has agreed not to publish her name.

After attempting to use her TD debit and credit card at a dollar store on June 27, the woman said she learned that all of her accounts had been frozen. When she went to her local TD branch to find out what was happening, she said she faced a day-long runaround that resulted in no clear answers.

The next morning, the woman continued to call TD’s head office in Toronto. That afternoon, she did receive a call telling her the reason for the account closure.

“They said that, ‘Yes, because of the new economic sanctions against Iran, the accounts had been closed.’”
The woman, who is a Canadian citizen, was confused why she had been “targeted.” Although she has family in Iran, she claims they have no political affiliations with the Iranian regime and she never sends money to the country. She did, however, concede that her family in Iran recently wired a large sum of money to a Canadian family member.

On June 29, she was told her account would be reopened after the Canada Day long weekend. But that never happened, and as of Thursday evening, the woman’s two credit cards, line of credit, mortgage and debit account with TD were all still closed.

She can still access her money through bank drafts, but says she is nervous handling large amounts of money in this way.

The woman said her family will not attempt to reopen the accounts with TD, and are looking to move to another bank.

“I feel betrayed and frustrated,” the woman said. “After 10 years of living in Canada, this is an absolute disgrace to me.”

Kaveh Shahrooz, vice-president of the Iranian Canadian Congress. said the ICC became aware of the
letters a couple of months ago, although reports of more letters have increased in the past few weeks.
The ICC could not specify how many Canadians it has heard from, but said it is now starting to receive two to three reports from Canadian-Iranians a day.

“These are people’s livelihoods,” said Shahrooz. “They’re worried that if they can’t do banking with TD, they can’t do banking with any other bank out there.”

The Department of Foreign Affairs was not able to confirm Thursday what specific changes to the Canadian sanctions against Iran led to the closures of the banks accounts.

However, Shahrooz said he believes the closures may have something to do with the January 2012 expansion of Canada’s sanctions against Iran. The changes, announced by Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird on Jan. 31, added five entities and three individuals to the list of designated people whose assets were frozen.

“Our organization is very sensitive to the idea of the importance of making sure that the Iranian government doesn’t use the banking system here in Canada to further its goals,” said Shahrooz. “But at the same time we are very concerned about the overzealous application of this sanctions regime may harm innocent people.”

The ICC will hold a meeting in Toronto Saturday for members of the Iranian-Canadian community whose accounts have been closed by TD. The purpose of the meeting is to gather relevant information from those affected so the group can take the appropriate steps of action.

Those affected have taken to social media websites to express their concerns. A Facebook page titled “Condemn TD Bank in their Treatment of clients with Iranian Background” has more than 70 likes and a number of posts from users saying they known of Iranian-Canadians whose TD bank accounts have been closed. Twitter users have also been reporting account closures, with one user even posting a portion of the letter from TD online.

Letter recipients are given a date by which their accounts and services with TD will be closed. They are then instructed to contact Foreign Affairs to apply for a permit to carry out future transactions prohibited by the regulations.

Foreign Affairs did not having anything to say about the changes to the sanctions or TD’s letters as of Thursday evening.

According to the ICC, it appears that only TD is sending out the letters at this time. TD could not confirm whether any other banks were sending similar letters to clients.

WANTED SA kindly thanks Ottawa Citizen, US Treasury, Kenneth Rijock, AFP, Reuters, BBC, Associated Press, DEA, FBI, ICE, Westlaw, Arutz Sheva, and all the Parties, Press, Journalists, Law Enforcement and Securities forces  who have contributed to the many articles and their sincere opinions and statements.

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Wednesday, July 11, 2012

HEZBOLLAH PLEADING INNOCENT FOR DRUG TRAFFICKING, MONEY LAUNDERING & MURDER | MONTE FRIESNER BREAKING NEWS |

HEZBOLLAH DENIES US MONEY LAUNDERING ALLEGATIONS |

 
FROM THE - JOURNALS of Monte Friesner Intelligence Analyst & Consulaire for WANTED SA ~
Contributed & Written by Kenneth Rijock

Hezbollah the Lebanese Shiite organisation that is a sanctioned Specially Designated Global Terrorist organisation (SDGT) has made a public statement denying any involvement in money laundering or drugs trafficking. The organisation was responding to sanctions imposed upon Colombian- and Venezuelan-based Lebanese nationals with strong ties to Hezbollah, and a major article in the New York Times, examining the former banks' role in facilitating money laundering, reportedly on its behalf.

Here is the complete text of the statement:

"These allegations are pure lies, and come within the context of a suspicious US campaign to smear the image of Hezbollah through fabrications and false allegations."

Hezbollah Leader Sheikh Nasrallah

** NOTE: FOR FURTHER READING ON THE EXPLOITS AND CRIMES OF HEZBOLLA |


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KENNETH RIJOCK INTERVIEWED ON "BBC" RADIO | MONTE FRIESNER FINANCIAL NEWS |

HEAR KEN RIJOCK TONIGHT ON MIDWEEK BBC RADIO 4 LIVE

 
FROM THE - JOURNALS of Monte Friesner Intelligence Analyst & Consulaire for WANTED SA ~
Contributed & Written by Kenneth Rijock

If you live in the UK, and you missed my interview this morning on Midweek BBC Radio 4 LIVE, you may hear it tonight at 2100 hrs. The interviewer is Libby Purves. My segment starts around the half hour, so don't worry if you tune in after nine.

If you missed it, go to BBC IPlayer.

* NOTE: Kenneth Rijock is in London, United Kingdom on the launch of his new and latest book called "The Laundry Man" which has proven to be a massive success.

 

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

DUE DILIGENCE IS A MUST BEFORE A COMPANY HIRES A PROFESSIONAL

HAVE REPUTATION COMPANIES RENDERED GOOGLE OBSOLETE FOR COMPLIANCE PURPOSES ?

FROM THE - JOURNALS of Monte Friesner Intelligence Analyst & Consulaire for WANTED SA ~
Contributed & Written by Kenneth Rijock


The widespread use of Internet  "advisers," who manipulate what appears on the first couple of pages of an Internet search of a compliance research target, by placing various and sundry extremely relevant  items into the www, have rendered most normal compliance searches useless. If you are one of those few people who thinks that you don't have to spend money on commercial off-the-shelf high risk databases, think again. Search engines are now being gamed to deny you the truth about your target.

I saw a good one last week; the hacker involved had placed a wide variety of Internet entities, including subscriptions to many social networking and business contact sites, stand-alone websites purportedly by the the drug trafficker, operating a news service or public service, or both. Hobby and recreational sites, and even sites for images, are also a good method of pushing the real damaging data way back to the end of the search engine results, where most compliance officers deign to tread. There was even a nasty swipe at articles written by yours truly. about the someone's  long criminal history*, for "attack the messenger" is a favourite tactic, designed to make you question the accuracy of negative news.

A word to the wise: Unless you couple your Internet search with the criminal acts, or civil transgressions linked to your target, these reputation damage control firms will keep you from discovering the sordid truth about your prospective client. Since we rarely know exactly what your new customer's crime du jour  actually is (narcotics, white collar, child pornography, arms trafficking, etc.), you cannot therefore specify, with any degree of accuracy, in your  search. The only way to evade all those bland/positive entries about your target is to zero in on his crime; otherwise,
The obvious answer is that you need to batch up the queries, and outsource them all, as due diligence, or enhanced due diligence, so that someone with broader access, and investigative experience, can supply accurate answers. Search engines, as primary sources of compliance information, are becoming a very  dangerous place to troll for that data; avoid them.

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* I am sure that some of you may have articles critical of my information, or of me personally; this often happens when I expose career narco-criminals, dirty PEPs, or white-collar fraudsters. They do not like the public exposure.

** NOTE: Recently a client of WANTED SA accepted to retain a Specialty Compliance Expert and wired $5,000 to the Lawyer & Compliance Expert for retainer plus pre paid two airline tickets for his Forensic Accountant and himself to attend from Miami, Florida.
The Lawyer & Compliance Export immediately requested full title and recognition on all documents stating that he is the Chief Compliance Officer; however, the client retained the service of an expert in the field of Due Diligence who conducted with Law Enforcement a thorough search and related a terror story that the so called Compliance Office was recently released from a US Prison and who was sentenced to 10 years for Trafficking in Narcotics, Fraud, Money Laundering and numerous other criminal offences.
Warning to the wise that a thorough Due Diligence must be conducted and not just depending on Google. Just because someone claims to be a lawyer, accountant, compliance officer, journalist or any profession; check them thoroughly out before you lose money or even worse.

USA SENATE INVESTIGATING HSBC FOR MONEY LAUNDERING | MONTE FRIESNER FINANCIAL NEWS |

A U.S. Senate panel investigating breakdowns in money laundering prevention at British bank HSBC Holdings Plc
 
FROM THE - JOURNALS of Monte Friesner Intelligence Analyst & Consulaire for WANTED SA ~
Contributed and Credit To : REUTERS USA
 

The U.S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations said in a scheduling announcement on Monday that a hearing will focus on how high-risk bank clients gained access to the U.S. banking system.

The panel has been investigating HSBC for months as part of an effort by the Senate panel to probe shadowy money flows. The title of the hearing is "Vulnerabilities to Money Laundering, Drugs, and Terrorist Financing: HSBC Case History."

In an emailed statement, HSBC spokesman Robert Sherman said the bank will be discussing a number of compliance issues with the subcommittee, in particular how it resolved issues.

"The Board and leadership of HSBC are fully committed to implementing the highest standards and have already made significant changes to our organization's structure to bring this about," Sherman said.
Reuters originally reported in January that the British bank was under Senate investigation. Reuters subsequently reported in May that the bank has been the subject of an investigation by two U.S. Attorney offices.

HSBC also is under investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Justice Department. Those probes also are examining whether the HSBC was vulnerable to illicit funds moving through the bank.

HSBC is one of the world's largest banks with operations in more than 80 countries and territories. In 2003 and 2010, U.S. bank regulators ordered the bank to improve its anti-money laundering systems and personnel, according to enforcement actions by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, a Treasury Department unit.

Documents reviewed by Reuters that are part of two U.S. Attorney's office probes allege that from 2005, the bank violated anti-money laundering laws by not reviewing billions of dollars in transactions for links to drug trafficking, terrorist financing or other criminal activity.

Officials from HSBC and the Comptroller of the Currency, a lead regulator of the bank's U.S. operations, will testify before the Senate panel, the subcommittee said on Monday. An HSBC official likely will be grilled on how the bank dealt with high-risk clients who moved money through HSBC and the U.S. banking system.

Earlier this year, the bank named former top U.S. Treasury Department official Stuart Levey as chief legal officer. Levey had specialized in combating terrorism financing. It is not known whether Levey will testify before the panel. The hiring of a top former Treasury official signaled the bank's desire to show it was committed to combating illegal financing.

The Senate panel, chaired by Sen. Carl Levin, has issued a number of investigative reports in recent years to examine money laundering and tax evasion in the U.S. financial system. In 2011, the panel examined how Wall Street firms and banks profited from the boom and bust of the U.S. housing market.

In the statement, HSBC said it is cooperating in the Senate investigation and with U.S. regulatory authorities.

WANTED SA kindly thanks US Treasury, Kenneth Rijock, AFP, Reuters, BBC, Associated Press, DEA, FBI, ICE, Westlaw, Arutz Sheva, and all the Parties, Press, Journalists, Law Enforcement and Securities forces  who have contributed to the many articles and their sincere opinions and statements.

WANTED SA states that the facts and opinions stated in this article are those of the author and not those of WANTED SA. We do not warrant the accuracy of any of the facts and opinions stated in this article nor do we endorse them or accept any form of responsibility for the articles.

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A U.S. Senate panel investigating breakdowns in money laundering prevention at British bank HSBC Holdings Plc will detail the findings of its inquiry at a hearing on July 17.