Frankfurt The public prosecutor’s office in Frankfurt, the Federal Criminal Police Office and the financial supervisory authority Bafin searched Deutsche Bank on Friday for possible failures in the fight against money laundering. The trigger for this was the business of a family member of the Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad a few years ago, several people familiar with the topic told the Handelsblatt.
Specifically, it is about business of the former Syrian Vice President Rifaat al-Assad, an uncle of Bashar al-Assad. He was not a customer of Deutsche Bank, but the Frankfurt money house was involved in processing payments from the Assad clan as part of its correspondent banking business.
From the point of view of the investigators, Deutsche Bank should therefore have promptly submitted a money laundering report, said people familiar with the topic. In fact, the bank only did this last year. Rifaat al Assad was convicted of money laundering in Paris and then included in Deutsche Bank’s monitoring system.
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