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Miami Bank Will Pay $11 Million for Casas de Cambio Account Violations

By Brian Monroe

A Miami bank will pay nearly $11 million for maintaining accounts for over a decade for high-risk Mexican currency exchange houses linked to drug traffickers, the U.S. Justice Department said Monday. Ocean Bank officials were aware as early as 1996 that the accounts, held for businesses known as casas de cambio, were potentially being used to launder money for Colombian and other traffickers, including the Bernal-Palacios drug trafficking ring, the department said in a statement. At least one client received suspicious wires from the businesses beginning in 1990, the department said. Despite public warnings from the Justice Department, the Drug...

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