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Deutsche Bank staff saw suspicious activity by Trump, Kushner
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IANS | 20 May, 2019
Anti-money laundering
specialists at Deutsche Bank recommended in 2016 and 2017 that multiple
transactions involving legal entities controlled by Donald Trump and his
son-in-law, Jared Kushner, be reported to a federal financial-crimes
watchdog.
The transactions, some of which involved Trump's
now-defunct foundation, set off alerts in a computer system designed to
detect illicit activity, current and former bank employees told The New
York Times on Sunday.
Compliance staff members who then reviewed
the transactions prepared so-called suspicious activity reports that
they believed should be sent to a unit of the Treasury Department that
polices financial crimes.
But executives at Deutsche Bank, which
has lent billions of dollars to the Trump and Kushner companies,
rejected their employees' advice. The reports were never filed with the
government.
The nature of the transactions was not clear, but
some of them involved money flowing back and forth with overseas
entities or individuals, which bank employees considered suspicious,
according to the employees.
The red flags raised by employees did not necessarily mean the transactions were improper.
Banks sometimes opt not to file suspicious activity reports if they conclude their employees' concerns are unwarranted.
But
the former employees said the decision not to report the Trump and
Kushner transactions reflected the Deutsche Bank's generally lax
approach to money laundering laws.
They said it was part of a
pattern of the bank's executives rejecting valid reports to protect
relationships with lucrative clients.
"You present them with
everything, and you give them a recommendation, and nothing happens,"
Tammy McFadden, a former Deutsche Bank anti-money laundering specialist
who reviewed some of the transactions, told The New York Times. "It's
the D.B. way. They are prone to discounting everything."
McFadden said she was terminated last year after she raised concerns about the bank's practices.
Since
then, she has filed complaints with the Securities and Exchange
Commission and other regulators about the bank's anti-money-laundering
enforcement.
In response to the development, Kerrie McHugh, a
Deutsche Bank spokeswoman, said on Sunday the company had intensified
its efforts to combat financial crime. An effective anti-money
laundering programme, she said, "requires sophisticated transaction
screening technology as well as a trained group of individuals who can
analyze the alerts generated by that technology both thoroughly and
efficiently".
Amanda Miller, a spokeswoman for the Trump
Organization, the umbrella company for the Trump family's many business
interests, said: "We have no knowledge of any ‘flagged' transactions
with Deutsche Bank."
She said the Trump Organization currently has "no operating accounts with Deutsche Bank".
Karen
Zabarsky, a spokeswoman for Kushner Companies, said: "Any allegations
regarding Deutsche Bank's relationship with Kushner Companies which
involved money laundering is completely made up and totally false..."
This
report comes after Trump and his family sued Deutsche Bank in April,
seeking to block it from complying with the congressional subpoenas to
reveal his tax returns. The President's lawyers described the subpoenas
as politically motivated.
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