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The U.S. Justice Department has issued a rare letter exculpating a former top American Express banker fired in the wake of a multimillion-dollar anti-money laundering deferred prosecution agreement reached in August 2007.
A group of 90 American, Israeli and Canadian citizens are suing American Express Bank and Lebanese Canadian Bank for $650 million, alleging the institutions provided financial services to blacklisted terror group Hizbollah.
Two Venezuelan businessmen accused by U.S. prosecutors of acting as clandestine agents for Hugo Chavez's government have dropped a lawsuit against American Express Bank International related to $25 million the men had placed with the bank.
The $1.1 billion sale to U.K. bank Standard Chartered PLC follows enforcement actions issued in August requiring American Express Bank Ltd., the American Express private banking subsidiary, to pay $65 million in penalties and acknowledge its responsibility for AML and Bank Secrecy Act failures.
But the bad news continued this week for the company as its American Express Bank Ltd. unit reached an agreement on Tuesday with the New York State Banking Department to improve its AML regime.
The penalty, the largest against a U.S. institution for AML violations, resulted from a four-year investigation of a Colombian narcotics and money laundering operation.
