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Compliance Rifts Over Traveler’s Checks, Corporate Accounts Preceded Wachovia Fine: Whistleblower
printInternal clashes at Wachovia Bank over whether a corporate client or its customers were likely laundering money preceded the tip-off that contributed to the United States' decision to levy the largest-ever anti-money laundering compliance fine, according to Martin Woods, a former money laundering reporting officer in the bank's London office. Woods, who previously worked as a money laundering investigator with the U.K. National Crime Squad, alerted U.K. authorities to potential crimes through Wachovia accounts on three separate occasions, but said the disclosures ultimately cost him his job. The bank, now part of Wells Fargo & Co., paid $160 million to...
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