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Last year, HSBC pushed UK fintexten into control after discovering it received hundreds of millions of dollars from a web of linked companies such as Serbia.
London High Court documents obtained by the Financial Times show that HSBC claims that Stenn received money from companies with similar names to “blue chip companies” such as electronics group Foxconn, but that It had nothing to do with the big companies. Millions have also been accepted by villager-owned businesses in remote areas of China.
The document shed new light on events leading to the collapse of Stain, which specializes in invoice funding, and once boasted a $900 million valuation and partnership with international banks such as Citigroup. This information raises further questions regarding the surveillance of companies regulated by financial conduct authorities for anti-money laundering purposes.
Stenn introduced two UK units into management in December after an application to London’s High Court from HSBC Innovation Bank, formerly Silicon Valley Bank UK, one of the lenders of Fintech.
The FT previously reported that reference to Sten in US criminal charges regarding the Russian money laundering scheme has led HSBC to begin investigating potentially suspicious transactions. Sten was not accused of fraud in the case.
HSBC’s lawyers say $35 million to Stain after the investigation was discovered in a written submission to the court that the investigation was “not paid by a large blue chip company named invoice.” said it issued a default notice on the loan.
“Instead, payments are made by companies built into countries such as Serbia, and have no connection to blue chip companies named invoices and before they are placed in forced liquidation by regulatory authorities. , we often can’t submit an account,” wrote an HSBC lawyer. They claim that the transaction has “no possible explanation or justification.”
Serbian companies include companies with similar names to the largest oil companies in Spain, Repsol and Hon Hai Precision industry.
These Serbian companies also included companies with similar names to the Singapore-based technology group. HSBC’s lawyers say there was connections with two Serb individuals listed in the document, and all three companies were placed in “forced liquidation.”
“Taiwanese electronics component manufacturers, Singapore Technology Company, and Spanish multinational energy and petrochemical companies rarely have group companies featuring the same Serbian individuals as their supervisors. Large groups are It appeared to even have a subsidiary of
Stenn also received payments from “Zalando SE Limited” established in Hong Kong. The German online retailer “has no operational in Hong Kong,” the bank’s submission states.
One of the directors of Zalando SE Limited was the director of Green Bean Trading Limited, another Hong Kong company that paid $1.6 million in Stenn’s bank account at Citigroup. Greenbean’s sole shareholder was an individual based in Leahong, China.
“The address is located in what appears to be a remote village in China and consists of very small residences,” according to a bank’s court filing. “It seems unlikely that a legitimate company that makes a significant payment would have a single shareholder in a small rural village.”
HSBC claims Stenn’s invoice issues are “broad and systematic,” saying that the total amount of invoices flagged in 2023 and 2024 is over $202 million .
Sten did not oppose the submission of the HSBC, and the two main British units were placed in administration on the same day. Stenn administrators wrote in a report earlier this month that they are aware of “claims about potential irregularities before bankruptcy.”
Stenn founder and chief executive Greg Karpovsky, previously involved in a Russian bill finance company, later collapsed amid allegations of fraud.
Karpovsky denied “stenn-related fraud” to FT in December, but it was proven that “all fraud” in his previous Russian business “has been “proved to have been done much later than he left the company.” “He said.
