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NatWest’s anti-money laundering allegations were made public in the goldsmith case

Seeing people carrying £ 700,000 in black bin pockets through a West Midlands shopping mall to the NatWest branch was the only red flag among a number of notices that a UK bank missed out on failing to curb a £ 365m scam.

For five years Fowler Oldfield, a Yorkshire gold retailer who predicted he would receive £ 15m a year, has invested £ 365m in NatWest – plus £ 264m.

Some human deposits were surprisingly large – £ 42m donated to the Southall branch between 2015 and 2016; £ 750,000 was dropped off at Halifax within three days.

At NatWest at the Walsall shopping center – where £ 6.6m was set aside, plus £ 700,000 paid on September 14 2015 – the bags were open due to the large amount of paperwork and branch staff had to evacuate them to a powerful hessian bag, Southwark Crown. The court heard at a time when the bank had issued a ruling this week. The money was stored in the basement and on the roof of the branch, and some of it was to be kept behind the bank’s clocks.

“Someone is walking down the street with black money,” said Clare Montgomery QC, an attorney for FCA.

However there are no reports of suspicious (SAR) incidents raised by NatWest and the National Crime Agency prior to 2016, when West Yorkshire police said they were investigating Fowler Oldfield.

NatWest, which has a majority in the British government, this week handed down a penalty for its weaknesses, with a felony penalty and a fine of £ 264.8m for violating anti-money laundering laws between November 2012 and June 2016. The result was the first terrorist attack. Accused by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) of using anti-money laundering laws.

“NatWest is the source of a list of failures in monitoring and evaluating suspicious activity,” said Mark Steward, head of FCA’s trial and marketing manager, who added that the bank’s actions had led to “opening. The door to spending money.”

Eleven people have been charged with felony criminal mischief for firing on a sculpture with a shotgun, according to Flathead County, Arkansas Sherriff Jim Dupont.

The case underscores the FCA’s determination to squander the $ 100bn embezzlement of US dollars each year and has raised questions about bank failures to curb fraud.

red flags missed

Fowler Oldfield became a NatWest customer in 2011. Since late 2013, at least 50 bank branches in the UK have suddenly started receiving millions of pounds in cash, with £ 1.8ma a day paid at some point, Southwark Crown Court heard.

The staff at the branch and in the treasury chests, who were in charge of the treasury, expressed their doubts to their colleagues. 11 internal alerts were raised and the NatWest betting machine was launched 10 times.

At NatWest at the Walsall shopping center – where £ 6.6m was deposited – bags were open due to overcrowding and branch staff had to transfer them to strong hessian bags, Southwark Crown Court heard in a bank case this week. © David Linney / Alamy

But nothing the bank did, the FCA said. Even at the Walsall branch, staff had intended to raise an internal warning but no record was received by the bank.

Most of the money raised in the case was made through “low-cost” business machines in branches that did not want to associate with bank employees – although this approach was known to be a major concern in the UK government’s risk assessment in 2015. regulator said.

A fundraiser at NatWest in Washington in northeastern England raised the alarm when the money failed to test the scent. Employees found that banking funds “sometimes have a distinct odor, indicating long-term savings rather than business business.”

Staff were also plagued by “high volumes” of Scottish manuscripts kept by Fowler Oldfield, originally from the Scottish border. The NCA, which is investigating Scottish finance in England and links to terrorists, was warned but no SAR was raised.

A manager who is about to retire from a fundraiser at NatWest in Basingstoke, Hamphire in 2015 shared his concerns with the finance manager about the “suspicious money laundering he saw in his career”. But the bank said there was not enough information, the court heard.

NatWest failures

There were major gaps in NatWest routes. Its automation system has mistakenly identified other deposits as checks – which have the risk of cost overruns. The bank failed to place Fowler Oldfield as a high-risk customer for two years.

The only SAR raised in the NCA was related to a hairdresser’s accounts that received around £ 387,000 from Fowler Oldfield. No SAR was issued for the goldsmith only. Internal information was investigated at an office in Hertfordshire where some employees were unaware and willing to close cases within 30 days, the court heard.

Justice Sara Cockerill, who judged NatWest, also referred to the “other failures” in the bank’s operations and said without them “money would not be properly disbursed.”

John Kelsey Fry QC, representing the bank, told Southwark Crown Court that employees “did not” miss the job. “The quality and completeness of this analysis is another matter.”

Alison Rose, head of NatWest, said she was “deeply saddened” by the failure. The bank now has 5,000 volunteers and will spend £ 1bn between 2021 and 2025 to repair its anti-money laundering operations.

Nothing is being done to a former or former NatWest employee.

Roger McCormick, a senior patrol officer at Bayes Business School, said: “It is disappointing that even the most complex and sophisticated methods of dealing with money laundering can be frustrating if there is a lack of intelligence on the human level and a lack of transparency. to take action on what appeared to be a clear signal of a red flag. “

The case also highlighted the need for more financial security: “The bronze neck of individuals who were willing to donate large sums of money to steal from a bank branch and deliver them to the counter in plastic bags reminds us that too much money is spent on bank finance. Crime is rampant, ”said Mark Mullen, chief executive of Atom Bank.


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