Monday 18 December 2017

And right-wing politicians still wonder why the general public is in favour of a genuine federal royal commission into banks and bankers?


Is it any wonder reading this that the Australian Government was finally compelled to call  a royal commission into banks and banking practices commencing in 2018.

ABC News, 14 December 2017:

The Commonwealth Bank's ongoing woes around alleged systematic money laundering operations by criminal gangs and terrorists have deepened, with fresh claims the contraventions are continuing.

The allegations were raised as AUSTRAC filed a further 100 alleged breaches of Anti-Money Laundering/Counter Terrorism Financing (AML/CTF) as part of the existing Federal Court proceeding being run by the Government's financial transactions watchdog.

In one case, a client who had been convicted of terrorism charges in Lebanon, and was known to have tried to organise funding for terrorist acts in Australia, was given 30 days' notice of the closure of his CBA account before AUSTRAC was even alerted.

He also managed to withdraw funds from the account more than a week after it was supposedly closed.

"On 20 July 2017, CommBank erroneously processed a transfer of $5,000 from CommBank Account 184 [the alleged terrorist funder] to an account held by Person 138 [his brother] in Lebanon in spite of suspecting terrorism financing in relation to an identical attempted transfer on 19 June 2017," AUSTRAC's new court statement alleged….

Royal Commission Into Misconduct In The Banking, Superannuation And Financial Services Industry, Draft Terms of Reference, 30 November 2017.

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