7 minutes agoGerman prosecutors raid two Merkel ministries
Periskopi(5 years ago)
(5 years ago)German prosecutors said on Thursday they seized documents at the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Finance as part of the investigation into possible obstruction of justice by a government agency, which is responsible for investigating money laundering. Prosecutors' statement said they have conducted investigations about the Unit for [...]
Prosecutors' statement reportedly have conducted investigations into the Financial Intelligence Unit since last year, because this agency has not forwarded reports about possible money laundering to police and judicial systems.
Investigations began after a bank reported to the Africa Financial Intelligence Unit of more than a million euros, which the bank believed may be linked to trafficking in arms and drugs, as well as to financing terrorism, Reuters writes.
The unit was notified of this report, but had not sent it to law enforcement agencies. Prosecutors said they are also investigating the phenomenon of the large decline in the number of reporting on suspicious activities from 2017, just when the Financial Intelligence Unit had claimed responsibility for monitoring money laundering.
Prosecutors said previous raids in this entity had proven there had been wide communication between this unit and the raided ministries Thursday.
The prosecutors' intention is to determine to what extent the officials of these ministries were involved in the decisions of the Financial Intelligence Unit.
The Financial Intelligence Unit is part of the Federal Customs Administration, which is controlled by the Ministry of Finance.
