Swiss money laundering probe reveals Lankan links

Investigations carried out by Switzerland last year into money laundering and terror funding had revealed that money had also come from Sri Lanka to fund terrorism.

They were among more than 1,500 suspected money-laundering cases that Swiss authorities disrupted last year, including 15 linked to terrorist financing, officials said Tuesday, according to the Associated Press.

One of the terrorist-financing cases in 2012 involved 7.45 million francs ($7.8 million) and accounted for nearly all of the money that police investigated in connected with suspected terrorists, the Swiss federal police office reported.

None of the suspects was on any official terror list, said the annual report by the police’s Money Laundering Reporting Office.

Probes by the Police office led prosecutors to open 13 terror financing cases connected to money laundering, membership in a criminal organization or other offenses, the report said. One of the cases has since been suspended.

Of the 15 terror cases, the money sent by banks, asset managers and a money transmitter went to eight Russians, six Lithuanians and one American. Half the clients sending the money were from Switzerland; the others were from Cyprus, Sri Lanka and the United States, the Associated Press reported.

(Colombo Gazette)