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The U.S. Justice Department's plan to pursue harsher sentences against drug traffickers and other narcotics-related activity should prompt financial institutions to reassess the risks posed by providing services to state-authorized cannabis businesses, say sources.
The U.S. Justice Department's policy of withholding enforcement of national laws against state-authorized, marijuana-related commerce that doesn't involve organized crime, sales to minors and other federal "priorities" will likely continue under President-elect Donald Trump.
U.S. officials are drafting guidance for financial institutions concerned that accepting deposits from third-party companies serving state-licensed marijuana vendors may violate federal rules against money laundering, say sources.
There are all those sayings about how the optimist and the pessimist encounter the world, starting with the old "glass half-full or half-empty" adage. The 33rd Cambridge International Symposium on Economic Crime offered fodder aplenty for both world views earlier this month in the United Kingdom.
This time last December, one might reasonably have expected that 2014 would be a year of modest changes for the anti-money laundering and sanctions compliance sector. Then came JPMorgan Chase, BNP Paribas and a convoy of Russian tanks to quash that notion.
Federal investigators believe that sales of synthetic cannabinoid products could have links to terrorist financing and criminal syndicates, according to a DEA assistant special agent in charge.
A little-noticed amendment to a U.S. appropriations bill could do what lawmakers and lobbying groups alike have failed to do: ensure that banks don't pay for taking on state-licensed cannabis companies.
Even after the expected signing of a Colorado state measure clearing the way for marijuana dispensaries to bank themselves, the companies will face a long slog to acceptance by financial institutions.
The nation's financial intelligence unit will weigh whether additional guidance is needed on how banks should treat clients tangentially or directly associated with state-sanctioned marijuana dispensaries, according to sources.
Drug interdictions, illicit money seizures and suspicious bank wires related to Colorado are all on the rise since the state legalized the recreational use of marijuana, according to U.S. officials.
At the same time that the nation's financial intelligence unit is readying unprecedented fines against compliance officers, the agency is facing stark questions about its enforcement efforts, including its hiring practices.
When FinCEN restructured its reporting hierarchy, the bureau signaled a subtle but important shift for banks: some of the energy it had once spent toward improving compliance would now serve to penalize regulatory violators, says former Assistant Director for the Office of Compliance Tom Fleming.
Leaders of the U.S. Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control sharply criticized the head of the nation's financial intelligence unit for issuing guidance on how banks can treat marijuana dispensaries.
As federal and state officials continue down the road toward relaxing cannabis restrictions, banks have questions beyond simply whether they can accept marijuana dispensaries as clients. They wonder whether less direct financial ties to the businesses could be cause for concern too.
Banks can choose whether to keep accounts for certain marijuana dispensaries and report limited information to federal officials when the businesses are unlikely targets of prosecutors, the U.S. Treasury Department said Friday.
A number of marijuana dispensaries are attempting to convert their profits into securities and other investments to hedge against the threat of having their bank accounts frozen and subjected to federal asset forfeiture proceedings, say sources.
Tasked to consider whether it can offer regulatory relief to the medical marijuana industry, the U.S. Treasury Department may have few options to persuade reluctant financial institutions to bank state-approved dispensaries.
Banks that maintain accounts for state-licensed medical marijuana dispensaries will not be the targets of federal prosecutions, the head of the U.S. Department of Justice said Thursday.
More than 100 medical marijuana clinics have seen their accounts closed in the last 18 months by at least three U.S. banks concerned about regulatory repercussions, say cannabis advocacy groups.
