FinCEN Files

IMPACT

Here’s what is changing after the FinCEN Files shook the world of banking

After ICIJ and BuzzFeed News published a joint investigation, officials across the globe began to take action to thwart criminals and illicit financial activity.

By Will Fitzgibbon

Dec 17, 2020

FINCEN FILES

Global banks defy U.S. crackdowns by serving oligarchs, criminals and terrorists

By ICIJ

Sep 20, 2020

IMPACT

ICIJ nominated for Nobel Peace Prize for combating dark money flows

By Ben Hallman

Feb 01, 2021

Accountability

The public knew he was crooked in 2009. Big banks helped him stash millions until 2017.

By Will Fitzgibbon

Nov 30, 2020

FINCEN FILES

The fastest way to send criminal cash: money transmitters

By Will Fitzgibbon

Oct 13, 2020

COLLABORATION

FinCEN Files stories from around the globe

By Jelena Cosic

Sep 25, 2020

PRIVATE BANKING

‘Wired to make money’: Barclays’ private bankers serve ultra-rich, as watchdogs sound alarms

By ICIJ

Sep 23, 2020

MONEY LAUNDERING

With Deutsche Bank’s help, an oligarch’s buying spree trails ruin across the US heartland

By Michael Sallah

Sep 22, 2020

FinCEN Files

Mystery company ties accused temple raiders to art world elite

By Spencer Woodman

Sep 22, 2020

FinCEN Files

HSBC moved vast sums of dirty money after paying record laundering fine

By Spencer Woodman

Sep 21, 2020

Extractive industries

US Treasury Department abandoned major money laundering case against Dubai gold company

By Kyra Gurney

Sep 21, 2020

FinCEN Files

How banks helped Venezuela’s ‘boligarchs’ extract billions

By Sasha Chavkin

Sep 21, 2020

ANONYMOUS COMPANIES

Inside scandal-rocked Danske Estonia and the shell-company ‘factories’ that served it

By Simon Bowers

Sep 21, 2020

Global banks moved more than $2 trillion between 1999 and 2017 in payments they believed were suspicious, and flagged bank clients in more than 170 countries who were identified as being involved in potentially illicit transactions. The figures include $514 billion at JPMorgan Chase and $1.3 trillion at Deutsche Bank.
The FinCEN Files show that five global banks — JPMorgan Chase, HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank, Deutsche Bank and Bank of New York Mellon — moved illicit cash for shadowy characters and criminal networks even after U.S. authorities fined these financial institutions for earlier failures to stem flows of dirty money.
In half of the FinCEN Files reports, banks didn’t have information about one or more entities behind the transactions.
Years after concerns first emerged, banks continued to move money for fraudsters, drug dealers and allegedly corrupt officials, leading to cases of real harm.

How money is laundered through New York banks

By filing suspicious activity reports to regulators, big banks in the U.S. can collect transfer fees on suspicious transactions. Failure to file a SAR can expose banks to fines or penalties.

Read the investigation