How to counter Russian money laundering

A spate of recent investigations across the globe highlights the alarming proliferation of financial corruption. Latvia’s ABLV Bank recently collapsed amid U.S. accusations of facilitating Russian money laundering, sanctions evasion, and bribing public officials. Latvia moved swiftly to address weaknesses in financial sector oversight, but the episode illustrates a wider vulnerability to the corrosive effects of illicit finance within the European banking sector.

In the past month alone, Denmark’s Danske Bank has been placed under investigation after $234 billion in potentially suspicious transactions passed through its tiny Estonian branch; the Netherlands’ ING agreed to pay $900 million for failing to prevent money laundering through its accounts; and Switzerland’s Credit Suisse was formally reprimanded over anti-corruption failures.

On October 5, Hudson Institute’s Kleptocracy Initiative will host Ilze Znotiņa, head of Latvia’s Financial Intelligence Unit, for a keynote speech on recent efforts to strengthen her country’s anti-money laundering regime. Her remarks will be followed by an expert panel discussion on safeguarding the European banking system against illicit financial flows from Russia and the former Soviet Union.

The event is being co-sponsored by the German Marshall Fund’s Alliance for Securing Democracy.

Discussants

Charles Davidson, Executive Director, Kleptocracy Initiative, Hudson Institute; Publisher, The American Interest
Joshua Kirschenbaum, Senior Fellow, Alliance for Securing Democracy, German Marshall Fund of the United States @joshkirschGMF
Andris Teikmanis, Ambassador, Republic of Latvia to the United States @teikmanis
Nicolas Veron, Senior Fellow, Bruegel and the Peterson Institute for International Economics @nicolas_veron
Ilze Znotiņa, Head of Financial Intelligence Unit, Latvia