Monday, September 21, 2020

FinCEN Files: The real story may be in what the banks did not disclose; Wells Fargo-AmBank USD 681 Million 1MDB "donation" transaction might be an example of the magnitude of what has not been disclosed

 by Ganesh Sahathevan 


The ICIJ FinCEN  Files story is interesting but the true story may be in what the banks have not disclosed. 

Checking the section on Malaysia and then the Wells Fargo records suggests that the (in)famous 1MDB linked USD 681 Million "donation" which went from Wells Fargo to AmBank has  not disclosed. 


The transaction above occurred in 2013, well within the 2008-2017 period covered by the ICIJ  FinCen files


TO BE READ WITH 

Thursday, August 6, 2015

On the matter of the US$ 681 million donation to Prime Minister Najib Razak: Sender did not describe payment as a donation

by Ganesh Sahathevan
The Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak has said that  someone has sent him a donation of US$ 681 million, via Wells Fargo Bank of New York, using a BVI company (since liquidated) called Tanore Finance. That company was a client of Falcon Private Bank Of Singapore, which was the ordering institution for that wire transfer.

The Wall Street Journal which broke the story of that massive "donation" has placed on-line the relevant documents.

Readers are referred to pages 2 and 3 of the documents,and to the items marked 70-Remittance Information.
Curiously the transfers  (the sum total was paid in two amounts)  are  described as  "Payment" and not " Donation".
This is not a matter of mere semantics.In these days of heightened controls on the transfer of funds, given the fear of terrorist financing, descriptions are important , even for very small sums. In this case where that large amount of money was being transferred to an individual the description becomes even more important.


Readers may also be interested in item 71A Details o Charges
 "SHA" means charges are shared and it is again curious that such a generous donor would want the recipient to share in the charges for the transfer.
A PDF copy of the documents may be sighted at :
https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.documentcloud.org/documents/2158723/1mdb-documents.pdf

END

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