A federal judge's questioning of the recent DPA between the U.S. Department of Justice and Barclays Bank, could signal that future agreements will be more expensive for financial institutions and more perilous for their top executives, according to legal analysts.
The chief investigator of sanctions violations at Lloyds TSB Bank and Credit Suisse speaks with Editor-in-Chief Kieran Beer about the unprecedented penalties and the need for federal beneficial ownership legislation.
Word that a large penalty against a foreign bank committing sanctions violations is set to be announced is stoking more than just concern among other financial institutions. It's stoking rumor.
Investigations against at least nine foreign banks accused of violating U.S. sanctions will soon result in deferred prosecution agreements with some of the financial institutions, Manhattan's district attorney said Tuesday.
Despite all the rhetoric, combating the networks that finance terrorism and criminal organizations is not a priority for the international community, according to Jimmy Gurulé, a law professor at Notre Dame.
A federal court ruling dismissing a $300 million U.S. lawsuit against two European banks may limit how the United States enforces its anti-money laundering laws abroad, say former investigators.
Lloyds TSB Bank Plc. has agreed to pay the United States $350 million to settle charges that it hid wire transfers with blacklisted companies, the largest sanctions-related penalty to date.
The bank, which is based in London, expects to reach a "resolution" with the U.S. Justice Department, U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control and New York District Attorneys office, Lloyd's said in a statement Friday.
A little-known amendment of the 2001 Patriot Act to the U.S. money laundering laws allows federal prosecutors to obtain court-appointed federal receivers in laundering and terrorist financing cases with the authority to run independent investigations in tracking down assets.
UK-based institutions Barclays PLC and Lloyds TSB Bank both said last month that they were being investigated by the U.S. Justice Department and the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control for possible violations of sanctions against state sponsors of terror.
The bank returned its banking license on Jan. 18, three months after the U.S. Justice Department sued the Bank of Cyprus over claims that it aided a Cypriot fugitive launder proceeds from an insider trading scheme.
The cases, seeking nearly $300 million in fines, should be dismissed because they constitute an "unprecedented attempt to apply the U.S. money laundering statute beyond its explicit, but limited" extraterritorial reach, Bank of Cyprus and Lloyds TSB Bank argued in court documents released today.
The fallout from the securities fraud and anti-money laundering case involving the two institutions may continue, suggest compliance consultants, who say financial institutions involved in correspondent transactions with the defendants may face pressure from regulators and law enforcement.
Prosecutors are seeking nearly $300 million in penalties, charging that the two foreign-based banks helped to launder the proceeds of a massive securities fraud involving shares of software maker AremisSoft.