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After being busted in a massive money laundering scandal by American authorities involving lots of dirty Russian money, Latvia’s Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins promises his banks will be clean, really this time.
In meetings this week with top investors and U.S. policy makers, including Vice President Mike Pence and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins vowed steps to make a clean slate and attract foreign investment, reported Bloomberg.
“The signal is very clear on money laundering: We have a zero-tolerance policy in our country, and we will not tolerate it in our banking system,” Karins said in an interview Friday at Bloomberg’s headquarters in New York.
Latvian banks have been a favorite for Russian organized crime for decades since the fall of the Soviet Union; the small Baltic nation has a large Russian speaking population.
Karins met with U.S. officials this week and outlined steps Latvia is taking to prevent further financial crime; the meetings included Vice President Pence and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
“The clear signal I got was that there was a very positive evaluation of the steps we were taking,” Karins said.
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