Is The Bank of Queen Elisabeth Involved In Money Laundering?

French Presidential candidate Jacques Cheminade, in an interview aired live on March 21 on the Parliamentary TV channel, was asked about Lyndon LaRouche’s charge that the British monarchy is financed by drug money. Cheminade’s reply – that part of Queen Elisabeth’s fortune has indeed historically come from  illicit drug trafficking – was immediately portrayed in the media as outrageously ludicrous.

Then, ironically, only five days later, Coutts & Co., the private bank used by Queen Elisabeth II,  was hit with the U.K.’s biggest-ever fine for laundering dirty money, “after it failed to conduct proper checks on almost three-quarters of clients that held politically sensitive positions”, as written in the Financial Times of March 26. Many other press in the UK also headlined their coverage on the dirty dealings of the “Queen’s Bank”.

In reviewing 103 files of clients of Coutts Bank, the Financial Services Authority, which is the financial watchdog of the City of London, found that no less than 73 showed a routine failure to identify “high risk” clients, generally criminals, drug dealers, and so-called “Politically Exposed Persons,” i.e., corrupt politicians or government officials, deemed as “unacceptable risk.”

The fine is related to a three-year period from the end of 2007, a time when it was paying bonuses to staff on the basis of the number of new customers they signed up. According to the FSA, Coutts failed to take the appropriate steps to control that expanding customer base.Coutts is now the private banking wealth division of the Royal Bank of Scotland, leader of the notorious Rothschild-controlled Inter-Alpha Group of banks, which is now majority-owned by the British government. The FSA also investigated four other RBS-affiliated banks.

“Coutts’ failings were significant, widespread and unacceptable,” said Tracey McDermott, acting FSA enforcement director. The fine amounts to approximately 10 million euros.Coutts had already been fined for not preventing use of its accounts to finance terrorist organizations, as part of a £5.6 million fine levied against RBS in 2010. In total, RBS has been fined more than £25 million, more than any other U.K. bank.

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Verantwortl. f. d. Inhalt: Dean Andromidas, Claudio Celani