Report: FBME Bank Faces New U.S. Probe Into Porn Site Fraud

A small international bank shut down by U.S. authorities for aiding Somali pirates, chemical-weapons manufacturers, and terrorists is facing a new U.S. probe into fraudulent activities involving online pornography and gambling sites, Bloomberg reports. FBME Bank Ltd, which was banned from the U.S. banking system earlier this year after the Treasury Department tied it to money laundering for criminal organizations, is also at the center of a long-running investigation into stolen Russian funds. The newest investigation, by U.S. prosecutors in Brooklyn, centers on the bank’s credit-card services unit, which is suspected of helping porn sites and gambling and dating services defraud customers, according to the report. It wasn’t immediately clear if the U.S. attorney’s office was eyeing the bank or its executives as part of the confidential probe. The bank, which has been winding down operations in Tanzania and Cyprus amid increasing scrutiny, has issued a statement saying it was “not aware of any criminality” in its credit-card services division.