News
printRelated News
Financial institutions should plan out how they will investigate news of terrorist attacks, grand-corruption schemes and other high-profile crimes that often bear compliance ramifications, a senior U.S. official said.
The U.S. Treasury Department said Friday that, in response to law enforcement concerns, armored car services and other couriers transporting cash between Tijuana, Mexico and San Diego, California must comply with enhanced border declaration requirements.
In internal reviews and an ongoing criminal and regulatory investigation, Citigroup employees and Mexican officials have privately voiced concerns that drug traffickers may have infiltrated Banamex's anti-money laundering department, say sources.
A U.S. program supplementing Mexico’s efforts to clamp down on drug trafficking and money laundering should be extended for years to come, American investigators say.
Armed resistance by militia groups to Mexico's violent drug cartels will complicate the efforts of bankers charged with following anti-money laundering laws, whatever their sympathies, say industry consultants.
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.
Without the threat of larger monetary settlements or prosecutions, financial institutions have little economic incentive to seriously enforce their anti-money laundering compliance controls, according to Peter Reuter, a professor in the Department of Criminology at the University of Maryland.
The U.S. regulator of national banks has moved quickly to address congressional criticisms raised in July that it laxly enforces anti-money laundering rules, according to federal officials and compliance officers.
HSBC Holdings Plc will close all of its U.S. accounts in the Cayman Islands after a congressional investigation found that the Caribbean branch functioned solely as a dollar-clearing shell bank.
The U.S. Treasury Department's regulator of large banks will revise how it examines for anti-money laundering compliance within months, the agency's chief told a congressional panel Tuesday.
Poor anti-money laundering controls on affiliates and problematic oversight allowed a global bank to process tens of trillions of dollars with little to no compliance checks, according to a U.S. Senate subcommittee.
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.
Even prior to the disclosure last month by HSBC Holdings Plc that it would "likely" be the subject of a formal enforcement action related to anti-money laundering (AML) and other violations, things did not look good for the bank, according to Saskia Rietbroek, a partner with nomoneylaundering.com.
Key features of an anti-money laundering strategy to combat drug trafficking organizations pitched last year by Mexican officials may ultimately be dropped by lawmakers, say industry advisors.
HSBC Holdings Plc could pay as much as $1 billion for Bank Secrecy Act and U.S. sanctions violations, an amount that would overshadow previous fines for similar infractions, say sources.
A broad anti-money laundering measure that would create and strengthen criminal penalties and impose reporting requirements on non-bank institutions in Mexico is likely to pass into law this month, say former government officials.
A U.S. District Court judge Wednesday signed an order ending Wachovia Bank's deferred prosecution agreement with the U.S. Justice Department for failing to identify transactions potentially tied to drug cartels.
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.
It seems incongruous: even as Mexico's problems with drug trafficking, money laundering and violence have worsened in unprecedented ways, the Latin American economy's ability to attract foreign investors has grown.
Mexico President Felipe Calderon introduced a bevy of measures Thursday designed to crimp the flow of illicit drug proceeds from entering the country's financial system, including by limiting cash transactions on purchasing aircraft, vehicles, and real estate.
