Baku/14.12.18/Turan: British investigators froze bank accounts worth several billion dollars for money laundering in Azerbaijan. Investigative journalists discovered that with this scheme the money was taken out through four large fake companies registered in the United Kingdom. Reports about it amerikaninsesi.org.
According to the National Crime Control Agency (NCA), an order to freeze accounts is the first step related to "Azerbaijan laundry" to launder dirty money. This warrant allows investigators to immediately freeze accounts in case of doubt.
The NCA did not provide additional information or did not disclose whether account freezing was related to Danske Bank. This bank, located in Copenhagen, was in the center of the dirty money laundering scandal of 200 billion euros (227 billion dollars).
The name of the study conducted by the Organized Crime and Corruption Information Project (OCCRP). This network of investigative journalists conducted a study together with the Danish newspaper "Berlin" and others.
The study claims that the Estonian branch of Danske managed the accounts of four companies registered in the UK. The Azerbaijani elite, through these accounts, gave Europeans money for lobbying, expensive gifts, money laundering.
In September, Danske announced that the Estonian office had helped to carry out suspicious transfers from countries such as Russia by the end of 2007, and some non-resident clients used counterfeit companies in the United Kingdom and Denmark.
An internal report released by Danske in September states that six clients of the Estonian branch may be linked to Azerbaijan Laundry. All of them were British LLC.
According to the report, the Danske branch in Estonia in April 2017 shared with other banking departments about four companies. The final owner of these companies, which was from Azerbaijan, made a $ 3 billion deal.
British Howard Wilkinson, who worked at Danske Bank in Estonia in 2014, reported suspicious transactions to his bosses. Last month, he said in the European Parliament that Scottish companies have been used on this issue for years, and the role of Britain in the scandal is "shameful."
LLCs allow key owners to hide their identities and become anonymous companies.
The NCA said a number of its pros are investigating the use of registered British companies in a Danske scandal. "Professionals" means lawyers, agents, bankers and interviewers who provide administrative, consulting and management services. -0-
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