Wall Street
Journal (09/30/04) P. A4; Simpson, Glenn R.
Russian and
Eastern European prosecutors investigating international money-laundering have
been focusing on Delaware's corporate-secrecy laws, which, it is believed, may
be making it a haven for foreign criminal organizations.
The prosecutors
have filed more than 100 formal requests in the past four years asking the U.S.
Justice Department to help in probes of Delaware shell companies. The Delaware
case involve a few banks that have catered to Eastern Europe, including Bank of
New York, ABN Amro, and Bankers Trust. All of these banks kept
correspondent accounts in New York for small Eastern European banks.
Bank of New York and
ABN Amro are both subjects of law-enforcement inquiries regarding their
connections to companies suspected of fraud and money laundering in Eastern
Europe, and ABN Amro is also the subject of a fraud suit in the New York State
Supreme Court regarding its ties to a Cypriot bank that the Treasury Department
has blacklisted for money laundering.
The fraud suit
appears to have played a role in bringing about the Justice Department's
money-laundering probe regarding ABN Amro.
(online.wsj.com/article_print/0,,SB109650065189231950,00.html)