By Linda Khoo Hui Li
BANGKOK, Sept 23 (Bernama) — Thailand’s Anti-Money Laundering Office (Amlo) is studying media reports that four Thai banks were involved in suspicious financial transactions about two decades ago.
Acting Amlo secretary-general Pol Maj Gen Preecha Charoensahayanont said Amlo, the Bank of Thailand (BoT) and financial intelligence organisations in the kingdom are discussing the next move.
“The information from the media has yet to be verified and no one knows if it came from an official intelligence organisation of the United States,” he said, quoting Bangkok Post here Tuesday.
He added that the verifying process will take time.
Preecha was commenting on a media report that several global banks allegedly moved illicit funds of more than US$2 trillion (US$1 = RM4.13) worth of transactions between 1999 and 2017.
BuzzFed and other media reported on Sunday that several global banks moved large sums of funds despite red flags of the money, based on suspicious activity reports (SARs) filed by banks and other financial firms with the US Department of Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).
The report was based on 2,100 leaked SARs.
Four Thai banks were named in the report.
Based on the report, there were at least 92 transactions extracted from the FinCEN files that showed how suspicious transfers flowed to and from Thailand.
Of the transactions, US$9.56 million were received by the banks while US$ 31.75 million were sent (from the banks) between December 2012 and January 2016.
— BERNAMA
