By Mark Langabeer, Newton Abbot Labour Party member
That major UK banks have been playing a major role in concealing dirty money has been highlighted yet again, this time by BBC Panorama. Its investigative journalist, Richard Bilton looked at leaked documents showing how criminals hid their ill-gotten gains through the British banking system.
Edward Lucas, of the Center for European Policy Analysis, described it as, “making dirty money clean”.
The leaked documents show that one of Britain’s biggest High Street banks, HSBC, allowed $806bn of cash to be laundered by being transferred around the world. HSBC are not alone, of course and as much as $2 trillion has been laundered through the banking system, but it is the British banking system that is at the very heart of this scandal. The banks defend their actions by stating that they comply fully with British law, leaving out of account morality or probity.
Suspicious activity reports
Banks are supposed to file what are called, suspicious activity reports if they suspect a customer has access to large amounts of cash that do not correspond to that customer’s occupation and likely income. Such filings are common in the USA and Europe. However, there are three million reports filed in the US alone and it is impossible for regulators to follow up on all those reports.
So banks file the reports, to comply with law and then continue to manage the accounts on behalf of their dodgy clients…because it provides them with huge profits. Panorama’s Bilton provided some examples, like J P Morgan, a major US bank, helping to transfer huge sums of money held by a Russian Mafia boss called Semin Mogilevich. This guy is actually on the FBI’s top ten ‘most wanted’ list for criminality and is suspected of involvement in prostitution, gambling and money-laundering.
Barclays, another of Britain’s leading High Street banks, has opened its doors to many Russian oligarchs, including some who have a close relationship with President Putin and have, as a result had sanctions imposed on them by western governments. In so-called ‘shell’ companies, accounts have been established which have proved to belong to oligarchs who have stolen from the Russian people. One commentor suggests that this whole scenario ‘pollutes’ Britain’s reputation in Russia and elsewhere in the world, if, that is, there is any reputation still there to be tarnished.
Britain is in fact a world leader for dodgy shell companies which have suspicious activity reports filed against them. Many of these company have accounts show that they are based in an office location in Potters Bar, near London. It was also revealed that Standard Chartered, Britain’s fifth largest bank, had been involved with laundering money for Hamas, the political Islamist group, based in Gaza, and which is also considered by western governments as a terrorist group.
Dodgy dealings in football
Panorama revealed the dodgy dealings of Chelsea football club owner, Roman Abramovich. Until 2016, when it was banned by FIFA, players could be bought by ‘third parties’ and Abramovich bought or ‘had a stake’ in players for teams that were opponents of Chelsea. He is also a major contributor to Elad, a right-wing Jewish settler organisation that is busy pushing Palestinians out of their homes to create homes exclusively for Jews in East Jerusalem. Even the UN regard their activity as illegal because the land being taken over was owned by Palestinians. According to the leaked reports, Abramovich has funnelled $500m to Elad over the years and after his application for British citizenship was beset by bureaucratic hitches, he was granted Israeli citizenship.
Bilton also name someone called Chris Harborne who donated £10m to the Brexit Party to fight the 2019 General Elections. A wealthy businessman who has interests in Thailand, it appears that he has two identities: he is Harborne in the UK and Sakinkrit in Thailand. He also has bank accounts in both names in Hong Kong. His business interests include buying bitcoin. When Bilton rang Nigel Farage about this huge donation and requested an interview, Farage, who is not normally camera shy, declined.
Russian oligarchs and the Tories
Then there is the connections between Russian oligarchs and the Tories. Lubov Chernukin donated £1.7m for the privilege of playing tennis with Cameron and Johnson. It also included a night out with Theresa May. The Chernukins received $8m from a business friend of Putin. The Tories claim that donations from former Russian oligarchs are not ‘dubious sources’, but of course that depends on how you view things.
What Bilton and Panorama fail to explain was the motivation for these large donations to the Tories and the Brexit Party. Both parties want to maintain a system that maximises the wealth and profits of a tiny minority of the population. It’s not simply a matter of hobnobbing with celebrities and the famous, what motivates these people is the defence of a system based on privilege, profit and greed. Despite this, the programme is worth watching because it exposes the failure of Government to reign in the activities of the financial system in the UK. It was screened a week ago, but is still available here.
September 28, 2020
