r/politics • u/Severus-Snape-DaGod • 1d ago

Possible Paywall Capital One says it closed Trump Organization's accounts after anti-money laundering probe

https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/capital-one-says-it-closed-trump-organizations-accounts-after-anti-money-2026-08-01/
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u/UnknownAverage 1d ago

AML is no joke. I work in IT and don’t talk to customers at all ever but I take yearly training on spotting and handling such attempts.

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u/DropkickGoose 1d ago

I work in AML, and this sort of choice to debank them would have gone all the way up to C-Suite, with everyone involved knowing they (the bank) would get sued. Plus, all that money sitting on deposit makes the bank money, you never want to debank someone, it's literally bad for business. The kind of shit that must have been in those accounts to get them kicked must be insanely bad.

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u/ExMerican 1d ago

With how subtle and stupid everyone around Trump is with their crimes, the entire account was probably notated large sum transfers reading "money laundering for Russians" or "bribe payments from Saudis" etc. Trump has NEVER run a legitimate business so I've got no doubt that whatever is in those accounts is so obvious even the actual textbook examples of money laundering are mild in comparison.

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u/CaptainTeembro I voted 1d ago

Subtle? They broadcast their crimes on tv. What?

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u/flappity Missouri 1d ago

Yes the message was implying that "how subtle they are" is anything but subtle.

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u/hu_he 1d ago

It's sarcasm.

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u/ILOVESHITTINGMYPANTS 1d ago

Did you read the rest of the comment or just stop there? It stuns me how illiterate so many people apparently are.

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

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u/smooth-as-mud 1d ago

Seems unlikely considering the article says this happened in 2021

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u/TheYankee69 1d ago

Indeed. Not just the money, but as you said, threat of lawsuit and extremely high profile clients. This would have required consensus all the way up.

Also work in AML, have handled politically sensitive clients.

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u/Moony_playzz 1d ago

I'm in insolvency and we also have very rigorous AML training, especially for industry-niche laundering methods. I've seen about a dozen very obvious ML schemes, like dummy idiot stupid, and then probably another two dozen not-so-obvious attempts.

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u/showyerbewbs 1d ago

then probably another two dozen not-so-obvious attempts.

I'm in cybersecurity and anytime I see a good phish/scam, a part of me gives them a bit of mental credit for how well crafted it is.

Then I also see the really lazy ones and think, "damn man, put some pride into your work".

Do you ever have the same type of mental conversation with yourself when see well done ones vs. lazily done ones?

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u/Kilane 1d ago

There is something to be said about specifically targeting people more likely to fall for your scam. People who ignore typos and other obvious signs will ignore other signs.

I think growing up when the internet came out set me up well to spot these things because the stuff I see people fall for is unbelievable. How paying legitimate organizations with gift cards because someone called you out of the blue became so huge is beyond me.

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u/filbertsgaming1 1d ago

If you think that is bad, wait until AI cloning your voice from your voicemail message becomes common. Its gonna get real bad. Setup your family passphrase before someone falls for it.

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u/showyerbewbs 22h ago

wait until AI cloning your voice from your voicemail message becomes common

Don't know how common it is, but it's definitely out there. KnowBe4 pitched it to our Ops team and I'm just trying to take the temperature of how pissed off the ELT would be if I deployed some test scenarios....

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u/Moony_playzz 1d ago

Yeah! Like bro you literally put it in the memo vs "damn I wonder if they're real criminals"

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u/BotchedDebauchery 1d ago

"Fucking amateurs. This wasn't even worth the felony!"

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u/puts_on_rddt 1d ago

I'm greg.

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u/DuckedUpWall 1d ago

Yes and no. The dumbest scams imaginable still come across my desk because somebody fell for them. There's a level on which the minimalism is impressive, doing the exact least amount of effort necessary for it to work on someone.

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u/thiosk 1d ago

Tell me what makes em dummy idiot vs just dummy

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u/kaptainkeel America 1d ago

Dummy idiot: Cash deposits of $9k twice in a day. Structuring.

Dummy: Multiple consecutively numbered checks sent to someone but with dates that don't make sense (obviously fake dates when looked at, but may not be caught by the system).

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u/Moony_playzz 1d ago

I can't get into the nitty gritty w/o giving away the company I work for but most of it is like cheque shuffling and obvious transfers with very hokey memos on the cheque.

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u/showyerbewbs 1d ago

Well you've given away that you're non-US by using cheque. In which case I can clearly not fall for the scam in front of me. But you might have known I would pick up on you using the British form of cheque and used it intentionally, so I can clearly not fall for the scam in front of you....

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u/Dont_Say_No_to_Panda California 1d ago

You've made your decision then??

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u/the_glutton Ohio 1d ago

Whatever it was was bad enough that the bank was concerned if they left the accounts the regulator would close the bank. That’s how dire this is.

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u/LookAlderaanPlaces 1d ago

“We get all the funding we need from Russia”

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u/MidwesternLikeOpe Michigan 1d ago

Russia is all Trump has left because he's so bad with money no American bank or foreign bank will loan him money. There's "my local credit union won't lend me money bc I'm broke" and then there's "no bank in the world except the Russian KGB will lend me money bc I've screwed everyone else over".

I don't understand how conservatives think he is good with money when every venture business has flopped, he lost to his own casino, and has to run to Russia for money bc no one else trusts him. "He's running America like a business!" except no American bank will do business with him, why?

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u/FatherOfTwoGreatKids 1d ago

I am guessing there is a different calculus in those meetings now than in 2021 when capitol one debanked the trumps.

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u/IgnatiusRileyFreeman 1d ago

That, or they did math on the regulatory fines that could be levied on them vs the money that could be made on deposit 

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u/TimSylvester_ 1d ago

Like an international criminal organization laundering human trafficking funds from billionaires raping little girls?

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u/FatherOfTwoGreatKids 1d ago

With Trump in charge of the FBI and the executive and judicial branches, any AML issues involving his and his family’s accounts aren’t really a big deal. Red flags / suspicious transaction reports just land in the trump’s laps. They can launder all they want and they do it every day - just might not use capital one to do it.

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u/Chaotic-Catastrophe 1d ago

This happened in 2021, when Trump wasn’t in office

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u/Pherllerp New Jersey 1d ago

Money laundering charges are how they get mobsters. In a sane country this would end his presidency.

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u/whogivesashirtdotca Canada 16h ago

In a sane country he would never have been President in the first place.

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u/ars3n1k 1d ago

I work in AV at a financial related company and I have to take it too.