The Dark Money Files

In this episode we reflect on some past episodes, chat about the recent Dark Money Files Live event and announce some exciting news for followers of the podcast. New ways to bring you Dark Money stories! Send us Fan Mail Support the show Follow us on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-dark-money-files-ltd/ on Twitter at  https://twitter.com/dark_files or see our website at  https://w...

In this first episode of season three we give our listeners an overview of the report to the EU Parliament and Commission looking at recent money laundering cases in Europe and what we can learn from them. Send us Fan Mail Support the show Follow us on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-dark-money-files-ltd/ on Twitter at  https://twitter.com/dark_files or see our website at  https:/...

In this final episode of the Deutsche Bank story we look at the acquisition of Morgan Grenfell and Bankers Trust along with the banks somewhat strange relationship with Donald Trump. We also mention "The Dark Money Files Live" event which is coming soon to a location in London (with others to follow, we hope. Send us Fan Mail Support the show Follow us on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin...

In this episode we complete our review of Deutsche Bank's inspection by the FCA which led to them being fined £163m (and $425m by the Department of Financial Services - New York). W explain in some detail all of the areas identified for criticism but also highlight some of the good things Deutsche Bank did which don't always get the publicity they deserve. Send us Fan Mail Support the sh...

In this second part of our in-depth review of the recent travails at Deutsche Bank we talk about the background to the Systematic AML Programme (SAMLP) visit by the FCA, the  LIBOR fine which preceded it (including the £100m fine for DB's breach of Principle 11) as well as describing what exactly a SAMLP entails. Whilst this is specifically a tool in the UK regulator's toolbox, the outco...

Given its refusal to stay out of the news, we thought it was about time to turn our attention to Deutsche Bank. In an extended set of episodes we are going to examine in detail exactly what, in our opinion, went wrong and why. Part one begins by examining the "mirror trade" affair in detail. We will bring to light previously unreported elements and also try and make sense of exactly what...

We report on our involvement in recent leaks relating to Danske Bank and the potential criminal charges that can follow a failure to report.  External reports commissioned and cancelled, suspicious activity detected but not reported and question marks over the way a whistleblower was treated. This episode has got it all! Send us Fan Mail Support the show Follow us on LinkedIn at https://www.linked...

In this episode we start a conversation about FinTech and RegTech (along with a few digressions and diversions along the way). In an abbreviation heavy episode, we talk about face and voice validation, iris scanning and APIs, near field communication (NFC) chips and machine readable zones (MRZ) on passports and mention some of the ethical challenges that artificial intelligence and machine learnin...

Following on from our last episode looking at Bitcoin and the Blockchain, this week we look at the surface web, deep web and the dark web, explain what these different terms mean and then delve into the TOR network, TOR browser, .onion sites, the Silk Road and "Dread Pirate Roberts"! Send us Fan Mail Support the show Follow us on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-dark-mone...

This week, with some trepidation, we embark on an overview of some of the more esoteric elements of financial crime risk management. We attempt to explain the blockchain, cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, and cryptography generally, in layman's terms. As neither of us are subject matter experts in any of these fields, we are somewhat laying ourselves open to rebuttal and ridicule but we felt it...

In this week's episode we talk about the glitch that was discovered in Deutsche Bank's transaction monitoring system (and a couple of other Deutsche Bank related news stories) as well as Graham's recent visit to Lithuania and their pitch to be a global centre for FinTechs (along with the fallout from the Troika Laundromat and much else). Send us Fan Mail Support the show Follow us o...

The one you've all been waiting for! A detailed explanation of SLPs, their history, construction and how they are used to launder money - plus a further explanation of a Scottish Limited Partnership complex structure to show how they are evolving in the light of continued public exposure. Send us Fan Mail Support the show Follow us on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-dark-mone...

In this special episode we review and comment on the recent Global Witness update to its reports from last year on the effectiveness of the Companies House PSC regime. For more see: Global Witness blog and link Oh, and we also include an amusing update to our previous report on UK Limited Liability Partnerships. Send us Fan Mail Support the show Follow us on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/co...

In an extended episode, we delve into the intricacies of UK LLPs and, using real examples, explain how the rules allow them to be constructed in a such a way as to hide ultimate ownership behind a series of entirely plausible, but geographically diverse entities. And our old friend Ali Moulaye gets a mention (or two...). Due to the complexities of the subject, there are supporting graphics on our...

We begin our analysis of how legal entities, in locations which have transparent corporate registers can still be used to mask ultimate ownership and control while still providing a veneer of respectability. In this first part we look at Limited Companies and their Directors, Shareholders and Persons with Significant Control, to see how each of these can look plausible but still need further inves...

In this first episode of season 2 we discuss Ali Moulaye, the man whose signature is at the base of Companies House account filings for a multiplicity of LLPs identified as being involved in a wide variety of laundromats. And it's quite a story! Send us Fan Mail Support the show Follow us on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-dark-money-files-ltd/ on Twitter at  https://twitter....

In a sensational final look at the Danske Bank affair, we analyse the whistleblower report and definitively link it to a UK LLP (along with a few others) a small Russian Bank with Igor Putin (cousin of Vladimir) on the board, the Deutsche Bank mirror trades, Alexander Perepilichnyy, Alexander Litvinenko, Ali Moulaye and a whole lot more. Send us Fan Mail Support the show Follow us on LinkedIn at h...

In 2013 Danske Bank executives started to examine,rather more critically, the lucrative bond sale business in Estonia. We look at the reporting and decision making process at the start of that journey and wonder whether, in hindsight, they might have chosen to have done things differently. We also discus the risks of doing business with unregulated intermediaries (HINT: They are very high!). The u...

Following the release of Phase 1 of the Forensic Risk Alliance report prepared for Swedbank, we take a detailed look at that it has uncovered and where we'd like Phase 2 to go. Send us Fan Mail Support the show Follow us on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-dark-money-files-ltd/ on Twitter at  https://twitter.com/dark_files or see our website at  https://www.thedarkmoneyfiles.c...

We begin to look at all the different occasions, highlighted in the Bruune and Hjejle report, where the management of Danske Bank could (and arguably should) have become aware that they had a significant problem in the Estonia Branch and taken much more assertive action to do something about it.  In this episode we look at the years from 2008 to 2010. Send us Fan Mail Support the show Follow us on...

The second of our special episodes looking this time at the OCCRPs newly released data dubbed "The Troika Laundromat".  Rather than spend 20 minutes criticising everyone involved we thought we'd spend some time contextualising what it means and then look at how data releases like this can be put to good effect by helping the banks to improve their detection of financial crime in the...

In this jaw-dropping episode we look under the bonnet at the situation in Estonia just after Danske had bought Sampo. It highlights conflicting stories between what the Estonian regulator was saying to Danske (and in fact, ordering them to do) and what the bank was saying to the Danish regulator. It also looks in detail at the apparent discrepancies between what they had been ordered to do and wha...

Following an extraordinary week of developments which saw the removal of Danske from Estonia, its voluntary departure from Latvia, Lithuania and Russia, the launching of an investigation of both Danish and Estonian regulators by the European Banking Authority, the prolonging of an argument between the two regulators by the publication of hitherto private correspondence AND the addition of Swedbank...

In this episode we begin to look at the report, commissioned by Dankse Bank, which finally brought to light the full extent of what went wrong in Estonia. Part One explains the background to the report, the terms of reference, and the definitions of what constituted "suspicious" both in terms of customers, accounts, transactions and people associated with the bank. Send us Fan Mail Suppo...

In this episode we look in some detail at payments made from Danske Estonia to three specific countries - Spain, UK, and Latvia. The outcome will surprise some and intrigue all. It's a more complex episode because that's the way that Dark Money Launderers work and introduces, for the first time, direct references to the Magnitsky affair. It also demonstrates that, if you look carefully e...