The Hunt for the Money Launderer (Jagten på hvidvaskeren)

John Smith was featured in the Danish Broadcasting Corporation’s documentary Jagten på hvidvaskeren (The Hunt for the Money Launderer) about OFAC-designated money launderer Altaf Khanani and the international investigation which led to his arrest.

“It’s certainly one of the cases that stands out for me,” John said. “There are a number of sanctioned organizations that were supporting terrorists that the money laundering organization, or the individuals who were part of that, were linked to, and there were links to Hezbollah, the Taliban, Al-Qaeda, LET…a number of sanction-designated terrorist organizations that really cause concern.”

He added: “Any companies being viewed as an integral part of the Khanani network was a ripe target to be added as a supporter of that Money Laundering Organization, so you really want to be able to shut down the network as much as possible. Generally, by its very nature, a transnational criminal organization is not just one person. It’s multiple people operating across multiple jurisdictions, so you really want to make sure that you get the network, and you get that organization.”

“I’m gonna be tough here, and say that if you’re banking an entity in a tax haven where you don’t have confidence in who their owners are, then I would say that may be business that you don't want to take,” he said. “Now in the past, some banks took that business, but as that business has become riskier over time, I think banks are becoming much more cautious, and are beginning to ask the know-your-customer, beneficial owner, due diligence type of questions that would prevent that very type of activity.”

Watch the full documentary (only available in Denmark).