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Ex-Justice Department Official Says Banks Should Face Greater Civil Liability in Terror Cases
printFew compliance officers would extend a warm, welcoming hand to a lawsuit challenging their anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing programs. But Jeffrey Breinholt, a former deputy chief of the counterterrorism section of the U.S. Justice Department, says that compliance standards across the financial services industry would greatly improve if banks faced more liability because the legal pressure would spur new ways of detecting terrorist financing, money laundering and other crimes. Breinholt, who is on a sabbatical from the Justice Department, did not always hold that view. "I was very dismissive and distrustful of the private plaintiff's bar muddying around in...
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