FBI Conducting Criminal Probe Of Deutsche Bank Money Laundering Lapses

15 April 2019, Hessen, Frankfurt/Main: A sculpture in front of a Deutsche Bank branch. Financial experts consider a merger of the bank with Commerzbank to be possible. Photo: Boris Roessler/dpa (Photo by Boris Roessl... 15 April 2019, Hessen, Frankfurt/Main: A sculpture in front of a Deutsche Bank branch. Financial experts consider a merger of the bank with Commerzbank to be possible. Photo: Boris Roessler/dpa (Photo by Boris Roessler/picture alliance via Getty Images) MORE LESS
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The Federal Bureau of Investigation has an active criminal probe into whether Deutsche Bank broke anti-money laundering laws, the New York Times reports.

Agents have reportedly tried to establish contact with a former Deutsche Bank compliance employee who sounded the alarm about transactions made by Kushner Companies, the family business of President Trump’s son-in-law and White House adviser, Jared Kushner.

Those transactions purportedly involved money that was sent to Russian entities. The bank reportedly did not file suspicious activity reports with the Treasury Department, as would have been required by law.

FBI agents also reportedly contacted the son of a deceased executive from the German lender’s U.S. branch, who sat on the oversight board of one of the bank’s subsidiaries. The man’s son reportedly supplied the government with internal bank documents and messages.

“Agents told the son, Val Broeksmit, that the Deutsche Bank investigation began with an inquiry into the bank’s work for Russian money launderers and had since expanded to cover a broader array of potential misconduct at the bank and at other financial institutions,” the article reads.

The criminal investigation comes as multiple House panels are probing Trump’s financial history. Those investigations have included subpoenas to Deutsche Bank, which are now being litigated in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals as the President fights to stop them from being carried out.

Read the New York Times report here.

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Notable Replies

  1. Avatar for paulw paulw says:

    fake news, we’ll soon be told.

    I’m assuming that these leaks are specifically intended to make it harder to stop and bury the investigations once Barr gets around to the next round of, er, damage control.

  2. And if anything incriminating is actually turned up, I have full confidence that Barr will bury it in the Raiders of the Lost Ark warehouse.

  3. Wait a minute – the title of the article indicates they are being investigated for lapses in money laundering. Would they have been OK if they continued to launder money?

  4. Poor Bill Barr, his dike breaking to many leaks, there are soon as he had the Manafort and Hope Hick’s holes plugged, now comes Kushner and money laundering… he is going to run out of fingers pretty soon…

  5. That was my first take as well.

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