Macau's Banco Delta Asia handled millions of dollars for N.Korea last year

Macau's Banco Delta Asia (BDA) has handled tens and possibly hundreds of millions of dollars for North Korea last year, the Financial Times reported, citing bank records.

BDA, which reportedly admitted it also traded gold for the Pyongyang regime, also conducted legitimate trade for North Korea, it said.

BDA was last year pinpointed as a link in the laundering of millions of dollars to North Korea, prompting the US Treasury to urge the Macau government to freeze some 24 mln usd of the lender's assets.

Almost a third of that -- about 7 mln usd -- was held in accounts used by the Pyongyang-based Daedong Credit Bank, a North Korean/foreign joint venture commercial bank taken over this year by a group of British bankers.

The report said Daedong transmitted 49.26 mln usd through BDA during the first nine months of last year, until the accounts were suspended.

The newspaper also said almost half of Daedong's seven million dollars belonged to the British American Tobacco/Taesong cigarette-making joint venture.

It added documents showed BAT sent 14.7 mln usd from its joint venture and its stand-alone account to banks including Citibank in Singapore and HSBC (nyse: HBC - news - people ) in Hong Kong.

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