During the plenary session (5-8 October 2020) of the European Parliament in Brussels, MEPs debate on the fight against money laundering, following the FinCEN files.

Brussels

debate

plenary session

fight against organised crime, corruption and money laundering (T)

GIEGOLD, Sven (Greens/EFA, DE)

FERBER, Markus (EPP, DE)

ŠUICA, Dubravka (EPP, HR, EC)

HEINÄLUOMA, Eero (S&D, FI)

STRUGARIU, Ramona (Renew, RO)

Fight against money laundering, following the FinCEN files: extracts from the debate

Title: Fight against money laundering, following the FinCEN files: extracts from the debate (I-196225)

SOUNDBITE (English), Dubravka &#352;UICA, Vice-President of the EC in charge of Democracy and Demography, EU countries must also join forces to make the system less open to abuse. Member states acting alone are simply not up to the task of addressing the global challenge of such magnitude. The FinCEN files illustrate the vast scale of the problem. The European Union has to act decisively and collectively with the European approach to supervision, the European approach to financial intelligence coordination.

SOUNDBITE (German), Markus FERBER (EPP, DE), The member states they are not able to implement what's decided here at European level. They can't implement that into legislation. And I think that the Commission should be taking these measures against new member states.

SOUNDBITE (English), Eero HEIN&#196;LUOMA (S&amp;D, FI), Despite these alarms, banks still often execute these transactions. And again, it's thanks to the great work of investigation, journalists, that the scandal is revealed. It demonstrates once again that the existing money laundering system simply does not work. It is a 'Swiss cheese' full of holes. Since long time my group has been calling for uniform regulatory framework and EML.

SOUNDBITE (English), Ramona STRUGARIU (RE, RO), 121 hundreds suspicious activity reports and more than two trillion in transactions. These are stunning numbers. The leaks reveal suspicious transactions at Deutsche Bank. Russian criminals and money launderers working for terrorist groups allegedly, laundered money through the Moscow branch. The name of Vladimir Putin, cousin Igor Putin is also linked to such a transaction. Another leak reveals a transaction of 31 million between two offshore companies. The first one, with an account at Pireus bank, is owned by a person involved in arms trafficking for the Islamic State. And the other, with an account in the state controlled Bulgarian Development Bank, is owned by a notorious Bulgarian arms dealer. All of this is happening under the eyes of the financial intelligence units, of the European banking authorities, of the ECB, of the law enforcement, national authorities. Can I ask, how is it possible?

SOUNDBITE (German), Sven GIEGOLD (Greens/EFA, DE), The FinCEN files have surprising, positive side effect, because now we know what the American FinCEN is this type of authority like the American and is something that we need urgently in Europe.

SOUNDBITE (German), Sven GIEGOLD (Greens/EFA, DE), The American FinCEN is an investigative authority that looks at transactions within the US and worldwide. And the reason why some of the dirtiest banks, ABLV or banks in Cyprus are coming under pressure, is not because the European Commission or European National authorities have detected this, but because of the FinCEN and has carried out a very strict investigation and put its finger on the wound and or introduced or threatened to introduce sanctions against Latvia and Cyprus, whereas the Commission has observed without acting like a money laundering authority.

SOUNDBITE (German), Sven GIEGOLD (Greens/EFA, DE), The Commission doesn't talk about the central financial investigation unit in their proposals, but subsidiarity principle would mean that we need a one financial investigation unit so that we can be at par with the US.