Investigators searched Germany's financial intelligence unit Tuesday over suspicions that staff failed to turn over intelligence linked to a money-laundering probe, in possible violation of criminal law.
Germany's controls against money laundering, terrorist financing and other financial crimes have improved dramatically since 2010, but sometimes only on paper, as erratic supervision, prosecution and enforcement limit the impact of those upgrades in practice.
Germany's financial intelligence unit has whittled down most of the country's latest embarrassing backlog of tens of thousands of unreviewed suspicious transaction reports since December, when the full extent of the problem came to light.
German lawmakers unveiled plans Tuesday to breathe new life into their country's financial intelligence unit and repair the agency's relationship with law enforcement following multiple backlogs of suspicious transaction reports and a raid on the agency's headquarters.