FinCEN files: Major Indian banks figure in suspicious transactions list

Banks say they themselves red-flagged the transactions to RBI, authorities

Between 2010 and 2017, several transactions went through Indian banks that were flagged as top-secret ‘Susp­icious Activity Reports’ or SARs by the US Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) for suspected money laundering, terror financing, drug dealing, and financial fraud. 

Such transactions were part of $2 trillion suspicious transfers flagged by the top US authority in the FinCEN list. The International Consortium of Investigative Journalism (ICIJ) obtained the data that traces these global transactions, which happened between 1999 and 2017. Part of this data was released by the consortium on its website. 

Almost all major banks in India — public, private,