Transactions involving Donald Trump and Jared Kushner set off money laundering alerts at Deutsche Bank.
The New York Times reported:
Anti-money-laundering specialists at Deutsche Bank recommended in 2016 and 2017 that multiple transactions involving legal entities controlled by Donald J. Trump and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, be reported to a federal financial-crimes watchdog.
The transactions, some of which involved Mr. Trump’s now-defunct foundation, set off alerts in a computer system designed to detect illicit activity, according to five current and former bank employees. Compliance staff members who then reviewed the transactions prepared so-called suspicious activity reports that they believed should be sent to a unit of the Treasury Department that polices financial crimes.
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Ms. McFadden, a longtime anti-money laundering specialist in Deutsche Bank’s Jacksonville office, said she had reviewed the transactions and found that money had moved from Kushner Companies to Russian individuals.
Bank executives didn’t turn Trump and Kushner in because they had loaned the ex-president and his son-in-law billions of dollars.
In the coming days, the nation will hear House Republicans prattle on about Suspicious Activity Reports and bank records involving Hunter Biden.
The real scandal is one that they are choosing to ignore.
Suspicious Activity Reports are not by themselves an indication of guilt, but if House Republicans are going to use SARs as a reason to impeach Joe Biden for his son’s business dealings, then they need to be prepared to look at the SARs involving Donald Trump and Jared Kushner.
There have been rumors about Trump being involved in Russian money laundering for decades, and the Deutsche Bank report deserves congressional scrutiny that won’t come from the House Republican majority, but Senate Democrats need to launch an investigation.
