New Zealand companies with a vacant driveway in Auckland’s Albany as a registered address have been key players in a US$1.2 billion (NZ$1.5b) money laundering scandal in central Asia that helped bring down a government and sparked deadly riots.
A report by London based non-profit NGO Global Witness offers more embarrassing revelations over company formations that in May saw New Zealand struck off a prestigious European Union banking “white list” because of weak money laundering and terrorism financing rules.
The report also outed several recurring director/shareholder names on the New Zealand’s Companies Office register that are likely to be low-paid fronts for unknown people who control the shell companies.
Global Witness’ 90-page report ‘Grave Secrecy’ shows how New Zealand, British and Bulgarian companies moved billions of dollars in suspicious transactions at AsiaUniversalBank (AUB), Kyrgyzstan’s largest bank.
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