[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 18 (Monday, February 1, 2016)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E87]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




THE NEED TO TAKE ACTION TO ENSURE THAT ASSETS OF NATIONAL BANKS IN CIS 
       COUNTRIES ARE NOT USED TO BENEFIT TERRORIST ORGANIZATIONS

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                        HON. SHEILA JACKSON LEE

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                        Monday, February 1, 2016

  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to express my concerns 
about the banking industry in former CIS countries involving a bank in 
Latvia, ABLV. I have learned that ABLV was found to have not engaged in 
any activity regarding the Government of Moldova and/or activities 
related to the misappropriation of government funds and that there has 
been a thorough investigation of this matter and ABLV was not 
implicated in any wrongdoing with regard to this or any other matter in 
Moldova.
  In Moldova more than $1 billion was stolen from the Moldovan national 
treasury and a large portion of that money appears to have ended up in 
EU banks in Latvia.
  I still call upon the Administration and the Congress to investigate 
whether assets of the other national banks of countries of the former 
Soviet Union are not being plundered and used, knowingly or 
unknowingly, to benefit terrorist organizations.

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