The credit organization is charged with “suspicious transactions and intended hiding of information from bank regulators”, TASS reports.
Intesa Sanpaolo was fined in New York for “repeated violations of US laws on laundering of illegally gained funds”. The amount of fine is USD 235 mln, as the New York State Department of Financial Services reported on Thursday.
The New York branch of this Italian bank was fined. It is charged with “suspicious transactions and intended hiding of information from bank regulators”, according to the Department. “The violations, which were reported today, include serious shortcomings, made during several years in fulfillment of rules and detected in the process of oversight over transaction completion system”, the regulator added.
“Global financial institutions should remain the frontline of defense in fighting against international terrorism, cybercrime and tax evasion”, Chief Inspector of the Department of Financial Services Maria Vullo emphasized. “In the age of high risks, the efficient and reliable transaction tracking system is the key instrument in fighting against illegal transactions and terrorist funding”, she added.
According to Vullo, Intesa Sanpaolo’s New York branch employees “seriously damaged transaction monitoring system and did not repeatedly detect suspicious transactions”. It happened until these violations were revealed by independent consultants, who were employed by New York Department of Financial Services. As the regulator states, the sequence of violations was observed in this bank, starting from 2002.
Shadow transactions for Iran
New York State Department of Financial Services reported that Intesa Sanpaolo is accused of illegal multi-billion clearing transactions (cashless settlements for goods and services) with clients in Iran and other countries in circumvention of unilateral sanctions, imposed by Washington.
It charges New York bank branch with abuse and violations of rules of conducting financial transactions within four years. “Our investigation established that in 2002-2006 Intesa, applying nontransparent methods and procedures, conducted more than 2.7 ths clearing transactions in US dollars, for the total amount of more than US 11 bln, on behalf of Iranian clients and other organizations, possibly falling within the regime of US economic sanctions”, according to the document.
According to the management, Intesa “circumvented the control system, intended for detecting illegal transactions, in its New York branch and managed to evade the oversight of regulators”.
Activities of Intesa Sanpaolo
Intesa Sanpaolo participates in funding the purchase of Rosneft’s share. It was previously reported that Rosneftegas and the consortium, consisting of the sovereign fund Qatar Investment Authority and Swiss company Glencore, signed the agreement on sale of 19.5% shares of Rosneft for RUB 692 billion. The RF budget will obtain RUB 710.8 billion from privatization, including 18 billion rubles through extra dividends of Rosneftegas, secured by altered dividend policy, approved by Rosneft’s Management Board as part of preparation to privatization of the company.
As Glencore informed, Russian banks will participate in financing the purchase of Rosneft’s share along with Italian Intesa Sanpaolo.
