Malé, Maldives — Reports revealed from International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) shows that suspicious payments have been transferred to two branches of the international banks operating in the Maldives.
According to the reports, a total of USD 501,359 was recieved to the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) and the State Bank of India (SBI) branches in the Maldives as part of 18 transactions.
06 out of these 18 transactions amounting to USD 204,431 were to HSBC and the remaining 12 transactions were to the SBI transferring up to USD 296,928.
The reports also show that the transfers were made by the China Investment Corporation (CIC) through the VP Bank AG, operating from Lichtenstein during the years 2015 and 2017.
The ICIJ report was made relating to the recently leaked FinCen Files that reveal secret documents disclosing how major banks allow criminals to illegal money around the world.
The files recieved to ICIJ included of over 2,000 suspicious activity reports (SARs), filed by financial institutions to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Agency, or FinCEN. They also consisted of 17,641 records obtained through Freedom of Information (FOI) requests and other sources.
