The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, BuzzFeed News and other FinCEN Files reporting partners found that big banks often OK’d transfers of suspicious money but didn’t report these transactions to regulators until months or years later — after the money was long gone. New York’s financial regulator acknowledged that the financial system is “awash with trillions of dollars in dirty money,” and has called on banks to help fix it.
“I think what this set of articles did is put a spotlight on: ‘Is this system working?’” Lacewell said in an interview on Wednesday with ICIJ. “When you create something like ‘Well, here’s a form or document you must fill out under certain conditions,’ that can almost generate a false sense of security that ‘I’ve done what I need to do and everything is fine.’”