Citigroup's Los Angeles-based subsidiary Banamex USA has agreed to forfeit $97 million to avoid criminal charges for having willfully failed to maintain an effective anti-money laundering program for at least six years, federal prosecutors disclosed Monday.
New rules for Mexico's energy sector will soon empower the country's tax supervisor to scrutinize international firms for potential violations of money-laundering and graft laws.
Citigroup subsidiary Banamex USA will pay federal and state agencies $140 million for unresolved anti-money laundering violations ahead of the shutdown of its U.S. operations, the bank and regulators said Wednesday.
A $400 million settlement with an Israeli bank accused of facilitating tax evasion and an ongoing probe into loan fraud and AML violations at a Citigroup affiliate seemingly have little in common, but they share at least one trait: the exploitation of a typically low-risk, trade-finance instrument.
The independent court monitor tasked with ensuring Western Union's compliance with the terms of its March 2010 settlement with Arizona prosecutors has been dismissed from the position, say sources.
Should suspicions that drug traffickers infiltrated the compliance department of a U.S.-owned bank in Mexico prove valid, it won't be the first example of such a scheme, or the last.
Belarus' House of Representatives advanced an anti-money laundering bill, a MoneyGram and Western Union agent was sentenced to 15 years in prison for laundering fraud proceeds, and more, in this week's roundup.
Singapore will bolster client identification requirements for exchangers of digital currency, Hong Kong's fifth richest man was sentenced to five years in jail for bribery and money laundering, and more, in this week's roundup.
Mexican officials will extend until February an upcoming deadline for nonbank companies to implement anti-money laundering controls, according to sources with knowledge of the matter.
Plans to attract foreign capital and expertise to Mexico's oil sector could give organized crime groups and corrupt officials an opportunity to layer and integrate dirty money, say industry analysts.
The country's third largest financial institution is asking the U.S. Treasury Department for licenses related to thousands of transactions involving Iranian-sanctioned banks in the Middle East and Latin America that it says were performed to comply with local laws in those regions.
Changes to the final version of Mexico's new anti-money laundering law leave important gaps in the nation's compliance regime, and may elicit criticism from an intergovernmental policymaker, say analysts.
In the wake of regulatory crackdowns and multiple criminal probes, financial institutions operating in Mexico are spending millions of dollars to upgrade their anti-money laundering programs, say bank staff.
When the DOJ accused 14 in June of washing Mexican cartel money via a horse racing operation, it signified a rare feat in the drug war: a prosecution built solely on money laundering charges. Despite years of trying to choke the cash networks of Mexicans drug gangs, such cases remain the exception.
Mexican cartel members are exploiting mirror accounts in the United States and Mexico to launder money and evade U.S. dollar deposit restrictions, financial regulators said Thursday.
Mexico has lost as much $91 billion per year to capital flight associated with tax evasion and corruption during the last decade, according to a report by an American advocacy group.
Exemptions for Mexican hotels and other businesses from Mexico's limits on U.S. dollar deposits can be readily exploited by narco-traffickers and money launderers, say compliance professionals.
Mexican drug traffickers are likely laundering some of their profits in the country's casinos and nightclubs, as well as in campaign funds for political candidates, according to a leaked U.S. diplomatic communiqué.
Despite reports that 30 percent of Mexico's currency is derived from illicit funds, many compliance officers are just now waking up to the reality of the country's extensive money laundering problems, according to an AML consultant who works with MSBs.
Of the up to $39 billion in illegal funds smuggled from the United States into Mexico every year, approximately half ends up in Mexican financial institutions, according to a former official in the U.S. Treasury and Justice Departments.