A whistleblower recently leaked data from Credit Suisse revealing that the bank opened accounts for and served numerous individuals with criminal ties, including sanctioned businessmen and human rights abusers. The leaked data includes information on more than 18,000 bank accounts, collectively holding more than $100 billion. It has increased scrutiny of the Swiss banking system and has renewed calls for stronger anti-money laundering laws.
According to the New York Times, “among the biggest revelations is that Credit Suisse continued to do business with customers even after bank officials flagged suspicious activity involving their finances.” The Times reports that these customers included multiple individuals “accused of being involved in a wide-ranging conspiracy surrounding Venezuela’s oil company” and “a Zimbabwean businessman who was sanctioned by U.S. and European authorities for his ties to the government of the country’s longtime president, Robert Mugabe.”
A little over a year ago, the U.S. Congress recognized the important role whistleblowers can play in anti-money laundering efforts when it passed the whistleblower reward provisions of the Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020 (AML Act). The AML Act’s whistleblower provisions established a whistleblower reward system modeled off the highly successful SEC and CFTC Whistleblower Programs in order to better incentivize and reward whistleblowers who expose money laundering violations.
According to whistleblower...
A wave of pro-whistleblower opinions from federal judges suggests the False Claims Act remains on solid ground despite pointed questions from leading conservative judicial voices. Whistleblowers, ...
