The FBI is investigating a now-shuttered bank in Cyprus used by affluent Russians with political ties and has been accused by the U.S. Treasury Department of money laundering, the Guardian reported Sunday.
One source told the news outlet that the probe is a key interest for Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is handling the Justice Department’s investigation into the Russian government’s efforts to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and, whether there was any collusion between Moscow and members of Donald Trump’s campaign.
The FBI in November requested financial information about FBME Bank from the Central Bank of Cyprus, a move that appeared to be connected to Mueller’s probe of Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort according to the Guardian. FBME was based in Tanzania but conducted most of its banking in Cyprus.
The U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network in 2014 said the bank constituted a “primary money-laundering concern.”
Manafort, who kept bank accounts in Cyprus during his years working in Ukraine and investing with a Russian oligarch, was indicted in October on charges of money laundering and fraud.
FBME, previously known as the Federal Bank of the Middle East, has denied laundering allegations, and on Saturday made the same claim in a statement on its website.
“FBME has not engaged in money-laundering and was never accused of such until the FinCEN allegations. The bank has acted in compliance with all the EU and Cyprus Anti-Money Laundering directives; a fact corroborated by multiple third-party auditors,” the bank said.
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