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US FinCEN names 26 Indian banks partaking in dubious transactions: Report – Moneycontrol

A number of banks, regardless of whether they were private, public or foreign, helped in carrying out transactions that were red-flagged by the government between 2010 and 2017.

According to a Business Standard report, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalism (ICIJ) obtained top-secret Suspicious Activity Reports, or SARs, of over $2 trillion globally. While these transactions do not serve as outright proof of malicious activity, they are red-flagged by US authorities as suspicious.

In the case of India, these files so far have established sender-receiver connections for 406 transactions involving all major banks, including the country’s largest lender, State Bank of India.

According to these leaks, Indian banks received $482,181,226 from outside the country and transferred from India $406,278,962. All of these transactions were red-flagged by authorities.

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Some of the transactions are mentioned below:

Standard Chartered Bank, in a single transaction, transferred to Merrill Lynch Bank Suisse Sa $8,173,378 on July 9, 2011.

Bank of India received $119,548,135 in 19 transactions from DBS Bank between November 4, 2015 and April 14, 2016.

Deutsche Bank AG sent its local Indian arm Deutsche Bank in India $53,520,418 in two transactions between October 25, 2012 and November 26, 2012.

The Indian arm of HDFC Bank sent Standard Chartered Bank $327,999,890 through 11 transactions between September 24, 2012 and February 15, 2013.

IndusInd Bank transferred HSBC $8,260,868 in 55 transactions between June 13, 2008 and November 7, 2012.

SBI transferred $5,791,055 to DNB Nor Bank Asa in nine transactions between January 25, 2012 and October 9, 2012. SBI received $23,325,000 from Rak Bank through six transactions carried out between March 2, 2014 and March 23, 2014.

State-owned Canara Bank received $2,761,523 from the National Bk of Ras Al Khaimah Psc between July 24, 2013 and November 7, 2013 through 20 transactions.

Bank of India received $11,214,476 from Rizal Commercial Banking Corp in 16 transactions between January 13, 2010 and December 23, 2010.

Even the smallest banks in the country were involved. Tamilnad Mercantile Bank received $185,626 from Standard Chartered Bank in three transactions between December 9, 2010 and December 24, 2010.

So far, ICJI has named these Indian banks in 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, the report said.

This data dump is available on the organisation’s website. FinCEN has so far has meticulously tracked down 18,153 transactions totalling $35 billion. In these transactions, links between both sending and beneficiary banks have been established. The transactions took place between 2000 and 2017.