Jurgen Klopp:
"I don't think it was a good day for football yesterday. FFP is a good idea. It is there for protecting teams and the competition, so that nobody overspends and have to make sure the money they want to spend is based on the right sources."
Hypocrite or just uninformed?
Liverpool’s main sponsors are Standard Chartered.
The following are extracts from an article published by The Guardian in April 2019:
Standard Chartered fined $1.1bn for money-laundering and sanctions breaches
Standard Chartered has been ordered to pay $1.1bn (£842m) by US and UK authorities to settle allegations of poor money-laundering controls and breaching sanctions against countries including Iran.
The British bank has agreed to pay $947m to American agencies, including the US Department of Justice, over allegations that it violated sanctions against a string of countries including
Iran.
Separately, it was fined £102m by the
Financial Conduct Authority for anti-money-laundering breaches that included “shortcomings” in its counter-terrorism finance controls in the Middle East. It is the second-largest fine ever imposed by the UK regulator for anti-money-laundering failures.
The US treasury department said the latest fines settled “apparent violations” of sanctions imposed against Burma, Zimbabwe, Cuba, Sudan, Syria, and Iran.
US assistant attorney general, Brian Benczkowski, said: “Today’s resolution sends a clear message to financial institutions and their employees: if you circumvent US sanctions against rogue states like Iran – or assist those who do – you will pay a steep price.”
The Financial Conduct Authority had raised concerns about anti-money-laundering controls at Standard Chartered’s UK-based correspondent bank and its United Arab Emirates branches. It highlighted “serious shortcomings” in customer due diligence and said the bank also failed to ensure its UAE branches applied proper counter-terrorist financing controls.
The FCA gave examples where a customer was able to open an account by handing over around 3m UAE dirham (£500,000) in cash in a suitcase, with little evidence that the source of the cash was investigated. It also said Standard Chartered failed to collect sufficient information on a customer exporting goods that could have a “military application” to regions involved in armed conflict.
It said Standard Chartered processed transactions worth $438m between 2009 and 2014, the majority of which involved Iran-linked accounts from its Dubai branch routing payments through, or to, its New York office or other US-based banks.
Money from the right sources eh Jurgen?