Antigua-Barbuda freezes assets of offshore bank implicated in massive corruption scheme

Latest: Corruption and Money Laundering.

Antigua-Barbuda freezes assets of offshore bank implicated in massive corruption scheme.

By Caribbean News Now contributor

ST JOHN’S, Antigua -- The Office of National Drug and Money Laundering Control Policy (ONDCP) and the Financial Services Regulatory Commission (FSRC) in Antigua and Barbuda have frozen the accounts of a Brazilian-owned offshore bank that has been in operation since 2006, following information from a Brazilian court that found a prima facie case of money laundering by certain Brazilian nationals and companies.
 While the government is awaiting a formal request from the Brazilian government for mutual legal assistance, with which it will cooperate within the law and existing international obligations, it said it has taken all appropriate measures, including freezing the accounts of the individuals concerned.
 According to informed sources, the bank in question was complicit in the largest corruption scandal ever uncovered in Brazil, which included the alleged involvement of Luis Inácio Lula da Silva, the nation’s president from 2003 through 2010.
 The scandal, centering on Petrobras – Petróleo Brasileiro SA, Brazil’s semi-public national oil company – was an enormous matrix of secretive schemes that illicitly channeled billions of dollars to favoured companies and individuals.
 The corruption entered the political sphere through the involvement of....

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