A Mastercard executive has been linked to suspect transaction at Cyprus Bank.
In 2014, the United States’ Financial Crime Enforcement Network had banned U.S. financial institutions from dealing with FBME after the bank was accused of being used to “facilitate money laundering, terrorist financing, transnational organized crime, fraud, sanctions evasion and other illicit activity.”
The system allegedly worked by pinging phantom transactions back and forth between firms, thereby diluting the incidence of suspicious (red flag) transactions within a higher — artificially inflated — volume of hundreds of thousands of apparent transactions.
A spokesperson for FBME’s shareholders has dismissed the fresh allegations as being fantastical and unproven, stating that the court has not found the private investigators’ findings to be “supported by any evidence base.”
A Mastercard spokesperson told Cointelegraph that none of the alleged links between FBME and Wirecard have been proven. It further told reporters that it “maintains a rigorous enforcement process” for payment processors, which can involve fines and/or the suspension of licenses.
In response, both Visa and Mastercard are alleged to have each imposed fines on Wirecard in excess of $10 million over 10 years ago. Sources have claimed that Visa executives raised concerns about the German payments processor since at least 2015.
