Anna Fifield, Seoul December 19, 2006
BANCO Delta Asia, the Macau bank accused of laundering counterfeit and illegally earned money for North Korea, acted as a conduit for tens and possibly hundreds of millions of dollars in cash flows to and from North Korea last year, according to bank records obtained by the Financial Times.
These documents, plus new revelations about gold sales through the bank, suggest BDA was much more important to North Korea than realised.
They show also that a lot of apparently legitimate trade was conducted through BDA.
BDA accounts containing about $US24 million ($31 million) and linked to North Korea were frozen after US Treasury officials labelled the bank in September last year "a primary money-laundering concern".
Of that, about $US7 million was held in accounts used by Pyongyang's Daedong Credit Bank, a North Korean and foreign joint-venture commercial bank that was taken over this year by British bankers.
Although the amount frozen in the accounts has been known for some time, the volume of cash going through BDA has never been clear.
According to the detailed documents, Daedong transmitted $US49.26 million through BDA in the first nine months of last year, until the accounts were suspended.
Out of Daedong's frozen $US7 million, almost half belonged to the British American Tobacco-Taesong cigarette-making joint venture.
The documents show BAT sent $US14.7 million from its joint venture and stand-alone account to banks that included Citibank in Singapore and HSBC in Hong Kong.
This included $US2.3 million in July 2005 and $US2.9 million in August 2005.
BAT official Simon Millson said the company was "clearly" still concerned about the frozen cash and was trying to get the money out.
If the Daedong accounts were to exemplify cash flows through BDA, the documents suggest much more money may have flowed through the Macau bank.
Daedong's new owners, led by Colin McAskill, have sent the bank's financial records, including details of remittances through BDA, to the US State and Treasury departments to show that all the Daedong money was legitimately earned.
But Mr McAskill said the authorities did not appear to have acted on the information.
"If they at least give us our money back, that's a start," he said.
"At least, we will get an indication that they are aiming for a solution."
After 16 months of investigation, the US Treasury has yet to present evidence but has stressed that the financial actions are entirely separate from the nuclear issue.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20947286-36375,00.html
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