Thursday, March 28, 2024

News Destination For The Global Indian Community

News Destination For The Global Indian Community

BANKING & INSURANCE
LifeMag
THE DEADLY 2021 VIRUS AND THE INDIA FIT CURE

THE DEADLY 2021 VIRUS AND THE INDIA FIT CURE

THE NEW BANKING IS MORE DEADLY THAN COVID 19: More Bank financial frauds, Money laundering, Regime Change, Riots, Racial Trade Wars.

Year 2020 has been a life changing year in more ways than one for all people and this planet. The happier joys of life and family have been chocked by the many dangerously dumb western politicians and their man-made “Pandemic” virus fear fuelled by their lying medical monsters and their government funded mainstream media news. The brainwashed public carry on believing the lies and following the stupid new laws thus destroying their next generation. The 2021 western banking virus is more deadly and must be stopped from infecting the Eastern World. As there is little trade export and sales many western banks/financial institutes and companies are brazenly breaking international laws. Many of them are using Indian people, banks and companies to assist them in money laundering, financial accounting frauds. The British bank HSBC has a history of this and still continues to break many laws in Hong Kong and across the World.

The British Bank HSBC’s shares fell to their lowest level in 25 years as the bank faced allegations of money laundering and concerns about its ability to expand in Asia amid the fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic. The London-based bank’s Hong Kong shares slid 5.33 per cent to 29.30 Hong Kong dollars at market close on Monday and plunged 6.23 per cent in London to £285.05 at 11.22am UK time. The stock has nearly halved since the start of the year. The British bank is among five global financial institutions named in a report by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists that defied money laundering crackdowns by moving “staggering sums of illicit cash” in transactions that were flagged as suspicious.

This happened even after US authorities fined the institution for “earlier failures to stem flows of dirty money”, the ICIJ report said. The leaked documents, which are known as the FinCen Files, include more than 2,100 suspicious activity reports filed by banks and other financial firms with the US Department of Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. The documents identified more than $2 trillion (Dh7.34tn) in transactions between 1999 and 2017 that were flagged by financial institutions’ internal compliance officers as possible money laundering or other criminal activity, the report said. The top two banks are Deutsche Bank, which disclosed $1.3tn of suspicious money in the files, and JPMorgan, which disclosed $514 billion, the analysis found. Other lenders include Standard Chartered and Bank of New York Mellon, the report found, with HSBC disclosing $4.48bn in transactions.

The ICIJ report is another blow for HSBC, which is also a possible candidate for China’s “unreliable entity list” that looks to penalise firms, organisations or individuals that damage national security, according to the Communist Party’s Global Times newspaper. Last month, HSBC reported a 65 per cent drop in pre-tax profits to $4.3bn for the first half of the year, a much steeper fall than analysts expected with the bank's chief executive blaming a series of triggers. While HSBC is based in London, more than half of its profits come from Hong Kong. Europe's biggest bank also set aside between $8bn to $13bn this year for bad loans as it expects more people and businesses to default on repayments amid the fallout from the Covid-19 outbreak.

HSBC Bank 2018 tax fraud probe in India

The HSBC had acknowledged the fact that the regulatory and law enforcement agencies of various countries contacted the bank for information on persons and entities named in the leaked 'Panama Papers' which included hundreds of Indians who had indulged in alleged tax violations through offshore tax havens with the help of Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca. HSBC had set aside over Rs 5,000 crore ($773 million) as a provision for various tax and money laundering-related matters.

Here are all the key points that were related to the Indian investigation against HSBC:

- The Indian tax authority-initiated prosecution against HSBC Swiss Private Bank and an HSBC company in Dubai for allegedly abetting tax evasion of four Indian families.

- According to the report, the Indian tax authority had claimed they had sufficient evidence to initiate probe.

- The HSBC annual report said Indian tax authorities in February 2015 had issued summons and request for information to an HSBC company in India.

- Also, two offices of the Indian tax authority sent notices to HSBC companies in August 2015 and November 2015 on the matter.

HSBC's disclosure on the Indian tax authority's investigation came after the then Finance Minister Arun Jaitley informed the Parliament earlier that month that the Government detected over Rs 16,200 crore in black money after investigations on global leaks about Indians stashing funds abroad. In the written reply to the Rajya Sabha, Jaitley had also said about Rs 8,200 crore (including protective assessment of income of Rs 1,497 crore) of undisclosed income was brought to tax in the last two years on account of deposits made in unreported offshore accounts in HSBC Bank but this is not just limited to India.  Various tax administrations, regulatory and law enforcement authorities around the world, including in the US, France, Belgium, Argentina, are conducting investigations and reviews of HSBC Swiss Private Bank and other HSBC companies in connection with allegations of tax evasion or tax fraud, money laundering and unlawful cross border banking solicitation. Some Indian banks/financial institutes are being assisted by NRIs/PIOs and the Indian overseas branches who have closer relations with the many corrupt western banks/financial institutes. Nirav Modi (PNB Scam), Vijay Mallaya (Kingfisher Airlines), Rana Kapoor (Yes Bank and DHFL Scam) would NEVER have had the opportunity to commit the financial crimes against Indian government if the western banks/financial institutes had not completed the wire transfers and formation of offshore companies.

Instrumental in many business and banking trades from India to the UK/Europe and offshore locations is The Hinduja Group of companies in the UK. In 2000 Corruption charges were filed in Delhi, India against the three brothers in connection with one of India’s biggest and longest running arms sales scandals, the 1986 Bofars affair. A $1.4 bn Indian government (Congress Party) contract to purchase artillery guns from the Swedish manufacturer Bofors. The Indian investigators based the charges on bank documents that a Swiss court released to India between February 1997 and December 2000. The Hindujas failed in an appeal to the Swiss courts to have the release of the documents blocked. The Hinduja brothers were acquitted of all charges in the Bofors affair in May 2005. Delhi’s High Court threw out all charges against Srichand, Gopichand and Prakash Hinduja due to a lack of evidence. It is very interesting that Indian government failed to appeal against the high court judgement in the supreme court despite clear evidence due to the lack of Global expertise and offshore banking structures knowledge. One key point being that Hinduja Bank Ltd was founded as a finance company in 1978 and became a Swiss regulated bank in 1994. The Hinduja Bank has its headquarters in Geneva and has a developed network in Switzerland including offices in Zurich, Lugano, St Margrethen, and Basel. Hinduja family have the backing of the IndusInd Bank which in May 2020 is planning to raise over $500 million to shore up its balance sheet as it grapples with bad loans. The bank registered a 16% year-on-year drop in net profit at INR30.1bn ($401m), which lead to a 56% rise in bad loan provisions to INR244bn ($3.24bn). Its stock prices also plunged to more than 70% since the beginning of 2020.

The bank, which is backed by Hinduja Group, is in talks with three strategic investors, including Japan’s Nippon Life for the fundraising. According to sources, Nippon Life needs a bancassurance partner to boost its distribution network of insurance products in India. It also intends to bag huge corporate treasury cash for its asset management business in the country. However, the preliminary talks with Nippon may or may not result in a successful transaction. The other potential strategic investors include Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), and Singapore’s GIC. All the investors were warned in advance about the shady past of the Hinduja Group.

There is much more to this which will be re-investigated in the coming months as well as many new investigations and tracking of Indian banks/financial institutions and NRI/PIO companies who are on the scanner of The WHS Group’s “INDIA FIT” (Financial Intelligence Troops) legal case databases. In 2021 “INDIA FIT” is the new healthy cure and right medicine shots that bring back more business trade sales confidence and FDIs into good clean healthy Indian companies that we verify/certify a good clean bill of health to so that scams/frauds are eliminated and no international laws get broken.

What are FinCEN files?

FinCEN is the US Financial Crimes Enforcement Network at the US Treasury who combat financial crime. They look into grievances and concerns about transactions made in US dollars need to be sent to FinCEN, even if they took place outside the US. The FinCEN files comprise 2,657 documents, including 2,121 suspicious activity reports, most of which were files that banks sent to the US authorities between 2000 and 2017. They raise concerns about what their clients might be doing. These documents, known as Suspicious Activity Reports or SARs, are some of the international banking system's most closely guarded secrets. They reflect views by watchdogs within banks, known as compliance officers, reporting past transactions that bore hallmarks of financial crime, or that involved clients with high-risk profiles or past run-ins with the law. A bank must fill in one of these reports if it is worried one of its clients might be up to no good. The report is sent to the authorities.

India, IPL links

Indian entities figuring in these documents include “a jailed art and antique smuggler; a global diamond firm owned by Indian-born citizens named in several offshore leaks; a premier healthcare and hospitality group; a bankrupt steel firm; a luxury car dealer who allegedly duped several high net worth individuals; a multinational Indian conglomerate; a sponsor of the Indian Premier League (IPL) team; an alleged hawala dealer”. A key finding is that in many cases, the very fact that individuals and companies are being probed by Indian agencies is part of the SAR flagged to FinCEN.

In a majority of cases, domestic branches of Indian banks have been utilised to receive or remit the funds; in some cases, bank accounts with foreign branches of Indian banks, too, have been used to carry out these transactions. As many as 44 Indian banks figure in the FinCEN Files primarily because they are “correspondent banks” to the foreign banks which have filed these SARs. Key in this list are Punjab National Bank, Kotak Mahindra, HDFC Bank, Canara Bank, IndusInd Bank and Bank of Baroda, among others.

There are a total of 3,201 transactions which have been listed as "suspicious" in nature and these add to $1.53 billion—but this is only those where complete Indian addresses linked to different entities (senders, banks, beneficiaries) are available. These are attached as spreadsheets in each SAR. Over and above, are thousands of other transactions, also linked to Indian entities where senders or beneficiaries have addresses in foreign jurisdictions, the report added. What was more revealing is that the Indian Premier League (IPL) has also landed on the US financial regulator’s radar in a network of transactions involving a leading US bank, a little-known UK company, a Kolkata-based sponsor of an IPL team, and allegations of fraud and forgery. 

In 2013, KPH Dream Cricket, which runs Kings XI Punjab, went to court against team sponsor NVD Solar International Ltd for “cheating and duping” them of $3 million in sponsorship fee. The SAR, filed by , reportedly offers a clue to what went wrong. In 2013, San Francisco-based Wells Fargo Bank had received “a $2,975,460 SBLC (Standby Letter of Credit) from Deutsche Bank AG in London” with KPH Dream Cricket as the beneficiary. The SBLC for nearly $3 million was sought by Aerocom UK Ltd, an air tubes manufacturer, with no apparent links to the team or the sponsor. The SBLC said that “in case of failure of the obligator, NVD Solar International Ltd of Dhaka, Bangladesh, was to pay the amount due as per the terms of the contract”.

However, according to the SAR filed by Wells Fargo, the SBLC turned out to be “fraudulent” and was “declined”. Wells Fargo’s SBLC unit found that none of the companies named in the request—applicant Aerocom UK, beneficiary KPH Dream Cricket, warrantor NVD Solar — were on the bank’s customer rolls. It concluded that the “SBLC is believed to be bogus, as a search of Wells Fargo electronic messaging system does not show receipt of this transaction”, according to the SAR. An investigation by Wells Fargo’s Trade Finance Investigations unit also found out that the transaction also involved a forged signature. The IPL case is just one among the many transactions with India connections that were red-flagged in a SAR. 

According to the leaks, Indian banks received $482,181,226 from outside the country and transferred from India $406,278,962. These transactions were red flagged to the US authorities. So far, the Indian banks named by ICJI for dubious transactions include State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, Union Bank of India, HDFC Bank, Indusind Bank, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Yes Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, Canara Bank, Bank of Maharashtra, Karur Vysya Bank, Tamilnad Mercantile Bank, Standard Chartered Bank (India operations), Bank of Baroda, Bank of India, Allahabad Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, Indian Bank, Deutsche Bank (India operations), UCO Bank, Karnataka Bank, RBS, Andhra Bank, and Vijaya Bank.

The present Indian government and people of India have been robbed by many of their own Indian people who were assisted by many on the Little British Island BK (Broken Kingdom) and their offshore bank locations. The World Homeland Security (WHS) Group of companies has undertaken financial investigations of misconduct, bribery and corruption, as well as assessments of financial transactions, accounting irregularities, and regulatory and compliance issues on behalf of publicly and closely held companies, private equity firms, government agencies, municipalities, NGOs and high net worth individuals. India and China must avoid conflict, making peace is the best path forward. Western warmongers need another war so that they can “Divide and Rule” while stealing more Eastern Countries resources, create regime change riots and shatter the Eastern Countries societies with terrorism/false flag attacks. India and China Govts must amicably make land border decisions with lawful agreements while increasing more peaceful trade business ties so that it prospers people from both countries.

Why India’s financial system is vulnerable to hacks?

India's financial systems are extremely vulnerable, because they still rely on international banking networks like Swift to make transactions. International gateways are open vectors of attack for India. Last year hackers were able to siphon off 900m rupees ($12m; £9.7m) from Cosmos bank in the western city of Pune through a malware attack on one of its data suppliers. India is among the top three countries in the world for phishing and malware attacks. Although this comes down to the sheer size of India's digital population, the population of France is added every month to the country's internet: it is a big concern because many first-time internet users are being pushed to use digital payments.

In November 2016, for instance, when the government suddenly removed 80% of the country's cash from the economy by saying that 1,000 and 500 rupee notes would no longer be valid, Prime Minister Narendra Modi heavily promoted digital payments as an alternative. Mobile payment platforms both (Paytm) and (GooglePay) have since become a massive industry in India. A report by Credit-Suisse estimated that mobile payments in India would become a $1tn market by 2023. Credit and debit card payments are also popular, with an estimated 900m card operational in India today. Many of the newest entrants to India's internet more than half the 600 million-odd total users are from the middle or bottom of the pyramid. This means that very often, their digital literacy is low, or they are migrant labourers working in states where they are not familiar with the language hence, they are very vulnerable to fraud. And secondly, there is inadequate reporting of fraud by banks, which means sometimes consumers are not even aware of what has happened.

What kind of fraud is happening?

Financial fraud in India takes many different forms. Some involve hackers fixing skimmers and keyboard cameras to ATMs, which duplicate the card details of unsuspecting users. Others involve calling people up and tricking them into handing over information. The problem is that in a digital transaction lines are blurred and confusing. In the real world there is a clear distinction between giving and receiving. But on a mobile payment platform, this is not always clear. For instance, someone trying to sell a table online might be called by someone posing as a prospective buyer, offering to make an online payment. If that person says that he or she has made a payment and tells you that you will get a code via text message to confirm the transaction, many users would think nothing of it, even if they are asked to tell that person the code. The next thing they know is that the money has been deducted from their account.

What improvements can be made?

One problem is that the systems themselves are not secure or transparent enough. In the Cosmos fraud for instance, the software was not able to throw up red flags when so many transactions were compromised. And by the time the fraud was discovered, a huge sum of money had been lost. Furthermore, a lack of standardisation also makes transactions confusing, especially for first-time users. ATMs for instance, come in many different forms and each payment app in the country has a different interface. In India, due to the lack of computer software education and correct security procedures there is a human problem. People lack even basic awareness of the dangers, leaving both themselves and sometimes entire systems at risk.

What is the government's role?

Given the rate of India's internet growth, it is not possible to rely on just education alone. It's not possible for everyone to keep up with the sophisticated methods of hackers, especially when they are constantly changing tactics and methods. So, the onus has to be on regulators and payment firms to protect users. The other problem is that communication between the various cyber-security organisations is just not fast enough. The Computer Emergency Response Team (Cert), are sometimes too slow to respond to reported threats. But India is already aware of this. The country is formulating a national cyber-security policy for 2020 -2021 and officials have identified six critical areas where policy needs to be where special attention is needed. Finance security is one of these areas. It is only then that India will be able to effectively respond to the risks that come with moving to a largely cashless economy.

Even before the pandemic: the western economies and majority of people were already crumbling into deeper debts, bankruptcies, lost jobs/homes and slow trade. The present British regime is breaking international laws on the withdrawal agreement which was written agreed and signed by Clown UK PM BoJo as their Brexit virus finally gets cured. Stop your investments, banking and credit loans to UK/British companies as you will suffer bigger losses in 2021 and beyond as their Brexit cure fails to work as do their public fail to work (No new Jobs) because they were stupid enough to vote and elect their clown prince BoJo and his highly useless mindless ministers who enjoy breaking laws even when the little Island is in lockdown mode.  

Many western politicians, companies, Banks/financial institutes in the West will increase more bank financial frauds, money laundering, regime change, Riots, Western False Flag terrorism acts in the East, More Plandemic Virus BS lies and more Racial Trade Wars. More peace can prevail if good people irrespective of one’s country, culture or religious beliefs learn to respect more real truths without being swayed and misled into more darkness which will dim and destroy your children’s future peaceful happy lives on this Earth if you do not peacefully unite now. It is not hard to make a decision when you know what your “True” Values are.

Writer is the Global Chairman Group President of The World Homeland Security/Smartechno Group of Companies.  www.worldhomelandsecurity.one

THE DEADLY 2021 VIRUS AND THE INDIA FIT CURE

THE DEADLY 2021 VIRUS AND THE INDIA FIT CURE

THE NEW BANKING IS MORE DEADLY THAN COVID 19: More Bank financial frauds, Money laundering, Regime Change, Riots, Racial Trade Wars.

Year 2020 has been a life changing year in more ways than one for all people and this planet. The happier joys of life and family have been chocked by the many dangerously dumb western politicians and their man-made “Pandemic” virus fear fuelled by their lying medical monsters and their government funded mainstream media news. The brainwashed public carry on believing the lies and following the stupid new laws thus destroying their next generation. The 2021 western banking virus is more deadly and must be stopped from infecting the Eastern World. As there is little trade export and sales many western banks/financial institutes and companies are brazenly breaking international laws. Many of them are using Indian people, banks and companies to assist them in money laundering, financial accounting frauds. The British bank HSBC has a history of this and still continues to break many laws in Hong Kong and across the World.

The British Bank HSBC’s shares fell to their lowest level in 25 years as the bank faced allegations of money laundering and concerns about its ability to expand in Asia amid the fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic. The London-based bank’s Hong Kong shares slid 5.33 per cent to 29.30 Hong Kong dollars at market close on Monday and plunged 6.23 per cent in London to £285.05 at 11.22am UK time. The stock has nearly halved since the start of the year. The British bank is among five global financial institutions named in a report by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists that defied money laundering crackdowns by moving “staggering sums of illicit cash” in transactions that were flagged as suspicious.

This happened even after US authorities fined the institution for “earlier failures to stem flows of dirty money”, the ICIJ report said. The leaked documents, which are known as the FinCen Files, include more than 2,100 suspicious activity reports filed by banks and other financial firms with the US Department of Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. The documents identified more than $2 trillion (Dh7.34tn) in transactions between 1999 and 2017 that were flagged by financial institutions’ internal compliance officers as possible money laundering or other criminal activity, the report said. The top two banks are Deutsche Bank, which disclosed $1.3tn of suspicious money in the files, and JPMorgan, which disclosed $514 billion, the analysis found. Other lenders include Standard Chartered and Bank of New York Mellon, the report found, with HSBC disclosing $4.48bn in transactions.

The ICIJ report is another blow for HSBC, which is also a possible candidate for China’s “unreliable entity list” that looks to penalise firms, organisations or individuals that damage national security, according to the Communist Party’s Global Times newspaper. Last month, HSBC reported a 65 per cent drop in pre-tax profits to $4.3bn for the first half of the year, a much steeper fall than analysts expected with the bank's chief executive blaming a series of triggers. While HSBC is based in London, more than half of its profits come from Hong Kong. Europe's biggest bank also set aside between $8bn to $13bn this year for bad loans as it expects more people and businesses to default on repayments amid the fallout from the Covid-19 outbreak.

HSBC Bank 2018 tax fraud probe in India

The HSBC had acknowledged the fact that the regulatory and law enforcement agencies of various countries contacted the bank for information on persons and entities named in the leaked 'Panama Papers' which included hundreds of Indians who had indulged in alleged tax violations through offshore tax havens with the help of Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca. HSBC had set aside over Rs 5,000 crore ($773 million) as a provision for various tax and money laundering-related matters.

Here are all the key points that were related to the Indian investigation against HSBC:

- The Indian tax authority-initiated prosecution against HSBC Swiss Private Bank and an HSBC company in Dubai for allegedly abetting tax evasion of four Indian families.

- According to the report, the Indian tax authority had claimed they had sufficient evidence to initiate probe.

- The HSBC annual report said Indian tax authorities in February 2015 had issued summons and request for information to an HSBC company in India.

- Also, two offices of the Indian tax authority sent notices to HSBC companies in August 2015 and November 2015 on the matter.

HSBC's disclosure on the Indian tax authority's investigation came after the then Finance Minister Arun Jaitley informed the Parliament earlier that month that the Government detected over Rs 16,200 crore in black money after investigations on global leaks about Indians stashing funds abroad. In the written reply to the Rajya Sabha, Jaitley had also said about Rs 8,200 crore (including protective assessment of income of Rs 1,497 crore) of undisclosed income was brought to tax in the last two years on account of deposits made in unreported offshore accounts in HSBC Bank but this is not just limited to India.  Various tax administrations, regulatory and law enforcement authorities around the world, including in the US, France, Belgium, Argentina, are conducting investigations and reviews of HSBC Swiss Private Bank and other HSBC companies in connection with allegations of tax evasion or tax fraud, money laundering and unlawful cross border banking solicitation. Some Indian banks/financial institutes are being assisted by NRIs/PIOs and the Indian overseas branches who have closer relations with the many corrupt western banks/financial institutes. Nirav Modi (PNB Scam), Vijay Mallaya (Kingfisher Airlines), Rana Kapoor (Yes Bank and DHFL Scam) would NEVER have had the opportunity to commit the financial crimes against Indian government if the western banks/financial institutes had not completed the wire transfers and formation of offshore companies.

Instrumental in many business and banking trades from India to the UK/Europe and offshore locations is The Hinduja Group of companies in the UK. In 2000 Corruption charges were filed in Delhi, India against the three brothers in connection with one of India’s biggest and longest running arms sales scandals, the 1986 Bofars affair. A $1.4 bn Indian government (Congress Party) contract to purchase artillery guns from the Swedish manufacturer Bofors. The Indian investigators based the charges on bank documents that a Swiss court released to India between February 1997 and December 2000. The Hindujas failed in an appeal to the Swiss courts to have the release of the documents blocked. The Hinduja brothers were acquitted of all charges in the Bofors affair in May 2005. Delhi’s High Court threw out all charges against Srichand, Gopichand and Prakash Hinduja due to a lack of evidence. It is very interesting that Indian government failed to appeal against the high court judgement in the supreme court despite clear evidence due to the lack of Global expertise and offshore banking structures knowledge. One key point being that Hinduja Bank Ltd was founded as a finance company in 1978 and became a Swiss regulated bank in 1994. The Hinduja Bank has its headquarters in Geneva and has a developed network in Switzerland including offices in Zurich, Lugano, St Margrethen, and Basel. Hinduja family have the backing of the IndusInd Bank which in May 2020 is planning to raise over $500 million to shore up its balance sheet as it grapples with bad loans. The bank registered a 16% year-on-year drop in net profit at INR30.1bn ($401m), which lead to a 56% rise in bad loan provisions to INR244bn ($3.24bn). Its stock prices also plunged to more than 70% since the beginning of 2020.

The bank, which is backed by Hinduja Group, is in talks with three strategic investors, including Japan’s Nippon Life for the fundraising. According to sources, Nippon Life needs a bancassurance partner to boost its distribution network of insurance products in India. It also intends to bag huge corporate treasury cash for its asset management business in the country. However, the preliminary talks with Nippon may or may not result in a successful transaction. The other potential strategic investors include Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), and Singapore’s GIC. All the investors were warned in advance about the shady past of the Hinduja Group.

There is much more to this which will be re-investigated in the coming months as well as many new investigations and tracking of Indian banks/financial institutions and NRI/PIO companies who are on the scanner of The WHS Group’s “INDIA FIT” (Financial Intelligence Troops) legal case databases. In 2021 “INDIA FIT” is the new healthy cure and right medicine shots that bring back more business trade sales confidence and FDIs into good clean healthy Indian companies that we verify/certify a good clean bill of health to so that scams/frauds are eliminated and no international laws get broken.

What are FinCEN files?

FinCEN is the US Financial Crimes Enforcement Network at the US Treasury who combat financial crime. They look into grievances and concerns about transactions made in US dollars need to be sent to FinCEN, even if they took place outside the US. The FinCEN files comprise 2,657 documents, including 2,121 suspicious activity reports, most of which were files that banks sent to the US authorities between 2000 and 2017. They raise concerns about what their clients might be doing. These documents, known as Suspicious Activity Reports or SARs, are some of the international banking system's most closely guarded secrets. They reflect views by watchdogs within banks, known as compliance officers, reporting past transactions that bore hallmarks of financial crime, or that involved clients with high-risk profiles or past run-ins with the law. A bank must fill in one of these reports if it is worried one of its clients might be up to no good. The report is sent to the authorities.

India, IPL links

Indian entities figuring in these documents include “a jailed art and antique smuggler; a global diamond firm owned by Indian-born citizens named in several offshore leaks; a premier healthcare and hospitality group; a bankrupt steel firm; a luxury car dealer who allegedly duped several high net worth individuals; a multinational Indian conglomerate; a sponsor of the Indian Premier League (IPL) team; an alleged hawala dealer”. A key finding is that in many cases, the very fact that individuals and companies are being probed by Indian agencies is part of the SAR flagged to FinCEN.

In a majority of cases, domestic branches of Indian banks have been utilised to receive or remit the funds; in some cases, bank accounts with foreign branches of Indian banks, too, have been used to carry out these transactions. As many as 44 Indian banks figure in the FinCEN Files primarily because they are “correspondent banks” to the foreign banks which have filed these SARs. Key in this list are Punjab National Bank, Kotak Mahindra, HDFC Bank, Canara Bank, IndusInd Bank and Bank of Baroda, among others.

There are a total of 3,201 transactions which have been listed as "suspicious" in nature and these add to $1.53 billion—but this is only those where complete Indian addresses linked to different entities (senders, banks, beneficiaries) are available. These are attached as spreadsheets in each SAR. Over and above, are thousands of other transactions, also linked to Indian entities where senders or beneficiaries have addresses in foreign jurisdictions, the report added. What was more revealing is that the Indian Premier League (IPL) has also landed on the US financial regulator’s radar in a network of transactions involving a leading US bank, a little-known UK company, a Kolkata-based sponsor of an IPL team, and allegations of fraud and forgery. 

In 2013, KPH Dream Cricket, which runs Kings XI Punjab, went to court against team sponsor NVD Solar International Ltd for “cheating and duping” them of $3 million in sponsorship fee. The SAR, filed by , reportedly offers a clue to what went wrong. In 2013, San Francisco-based Wells Fargo Bank had received “a $2,975,460 SBLC (Standby Letter of Credit) from Deutsche Bank AG in London” with KPH Dream Cricket as the beneficiary. The SBLC for nearly $3 million was sought by Aerocom UK Ltd, an air tubes manufacturer, with no apparent links to the team or the sponsor. The SBLC said that “in case of failure of the obligator, NVD Solar International Ltd of Dhaka, Bangladesh, was to pay the amount due as per the terms of the contract”.

However, according to the SAR filed by Wells Fargo, the SBLC turned out to be “fraudulent” and was “declined”. Wells Fargo’s SBLC unit found that none of the companies named in the request—applicant Aerocom UK, beneficiary KPH Dream Cricket, warrantor NVD Solar — were on the bank’s customer rolls. It concluded that the “SBLC is believed to be bogus, as a search of Wells Fargo electronic messaging system does not show receipt of this transaction”, according to the SAR. An investigation by Wells Fargo’s Trade Finance Investigations unit also found out that the transaction also involved a forged signature. The IPL case is just one among the many transactions with India connections that were red-flagged in a SAR. 

According to the leaks, Indian banks received $482,181,226 from outside the country and transferred from India $406,278,962. These transactions were red flagged to the US authorities. So far, the Indian banks named by ICJI for dubious transactions include State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, Union Bank of India, HDFC Bank, Indusind Bank, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Yes Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, Canara Bank, Bank of Maharashtra, Karur Vysya Bank, Tamilnad Mercantile Bank, Standard Chartered Bank (India operations), Bank of Baroda, Bank of India, Allahabad Bank, Indian Overseas Bank, Indian Bank, Deutsche Bank (India operations), UCO Bank, Karnataka Bank, RBS, Andhra Bank, and Vijaya Bank.

The present Indian government and people of India have been robbed by many of their own Indian people who were assisted by many on the Little British Island BK (Broken Kingdom) and their offshore bank locations. The World Homeland Security (WHS) Group of companies has undertaken financial investigations of misconduct, bribery and corruption, as well as assessments of financial transactions, accounting irregularities, and regulatory and compliance issues on behalf of publicly and closely held companies, private equity firms, government agencies, municipalities, NGOs and high net worth individuals. India and China must avoid conflict, making peace is the best path forward. Western warmongers need another war so that they can “Divide and Rule” while stealing more Eastern Countries resources, create regime change riots and shatter the Eastern Countries societies with terrorism/false flag attacks. India and China Govts must amicably make land border decisions with lawful agreements while increasing more peaceful trade business ties so that it prospers people from both countries.

Why India’s financial system is vulnerable to hacks?

India's financial systems are extremely vulnerable, because they still rely on international banking networks like Swift to make transactions. International gateways are open vectors of attack for India. Last year hackers were able to siphon off 900m rupees ($12m; £9.7m) from Cosmos bank in the western city of Pune through a malware attack on one of its data suppliers. India is among the top three countries in the world for phishing and malware attacks. Although this comes down to the sheer size of India's digital population, the population of France is added every month to the country's internet: it is a big concern because many first-time internet users are being pushed to use digital payments.

In November 2016, for instance, when the government suddenly removed 80% of the country's cash from the economy by saying that 1,000 and 500 rupee notes would no longer be valid, Prime Minister Narendra Modi heavily promoted digital payments as an alternative. Mobile payment platforms both (Paytm) and (GooglePay) have since become a massive industry in India. A report by Credit-Suisse estimated that mobile payments in India would become a $1tn market by 2023. Credit and debit card payments are also popular, with an estimated 900m card operational in India today. Many of the newest entrants to India's internet more than half the 600 million-odd total users are from the middle or bottom of the pyramid. This means that very often, their digital literacy is low, or they are migrant labourers working in states where they are not familiar with the language hence, they are very vulnerable to fraud. And secondly, there is inadequate reporting of fraud by banks, which means sometimes consumers are not even aware of what has happened.

What kind of fraud is happening?

Financial fraud in India takes many different forms. Some involve hackers fixing skimmers and keyboard cameras to ATMs, which duplicate the card details of unsuspecting users. Others involve calling people up and tricking them into handing over information. The problem is that in a digital transaction lines are blurred and confusing. In the real world there is a clear distinction between giving and receiving. But on a mobile payment platform, this is not always clear. For instance, someone trying to sell a table online might be called by someone posing as a prospective buyer, offering to make an online payment. If that person says that he or she has made a payment and tells you that you will get a code via text message to confirm the transaction, many users would think nothing of it, even if they are asked to tell that person the code. The next thing they know is that the money has been deducted from their account.

What improvements can be made?

One problem is that the systems themselves are not secure or transparent enough. In the Cosmos fraud for instance, the software was not able to throw up red flags when so many transactions were compromised. And by the time the fraud was discovered, a huge sum of money had been lost. Furthermore, a lack of standardisation also makes transactions confusing, especially for first-time users. ATMs for instance, come in many different forms and each payment app in the country has a different interface. In India, due to the lack of computer software education and correct security procedures there is a human problem. People lack even basic awareness of the dangers, leaving both themselves and sometimes entire systems at risk.

What is the government's role?

Given the rate of India's internet growth, it is not possible to rely on just education alone. It's not possible for everyone to keep up with the sophisticated methods of hackers, especially when they are constantly changing tactics and methods. So, the onus has to be on regulators and payment firms to protect users. The other problem is that communication between the various cyber-security organisations is just not fast enough. The Computer Emergency Response Team (Cert), are sometimes too slow to respond to reported threats. But India is already aware of this. The country is formulating a national cyber-security policy for 2020 -2021 and officials have identified six critical areas where policy needs to be where special attention is needed. Finance security is one of these areas. It is only then that India will be able to effectively respond to the risks that come with moving to a largely cashless economy.

Even before the pandemic: the western economies and majority of people were already crumbling into deeper debts, bankruptcies, lost jobs/homes and slow trade. The present British regime is breaking international laws on the withdrawal agreement which was written agreed and signed by Clown UK PM BoJo as their Brexit virus finally gets cured. Stop your investments, banking and credit loans to UK/British companies as you will suffer bigger losses in 2021 and beyond as their Brexit cure fails to work as do their public fail to work (No new Jobs) because they were stupid enough to vote and elect their clown prince BoJo and his highly useless mindless ministers who enjoy breaking laws even when the little Island is in lockdown mode.  

Many western politicians, companies, Banks/financial institutes in the West will increase more bank financial frauds, money laundering, regime change, Riots, Western False Flag terrorism acts in the East, More Plandemic Virus BS lies and more Racial Trade Wars. More peace can prevail if good people irrespective of one’s country, culture or religious beliefs learn to respect more real truths without being swayed and misled into more darkness which will dim and destroy your children’s future peaceful happy lives on this Earth if you do not peacefully unite now. It is not hard to make a decision when you know what your “True” Values are.

Writer is the Global Chairman Group President of The World Homeland Security/Smartechno Group of Companies.  www.worldhomelandsecurity.one

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