MARSHALL BILLINGSLEA, the American Treasury official in charge of tackling money-laundering, visited Cyprus in May 2018 with a stern message. His office had recently accused ABLV, Latvia's third-largest bank, of laundering Russian money and starved it of American dollars, forcing it to close. Clean up your banks, Mr Billingslea is said to have told Cypriot officials, or they will be next. Later that summer another Mediterranean island felt similar heat from European officials, who said there had been serious regulatory gaps in Malta's handling of scandal-hit Pilatus Bank.
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