As Cyprus continues its troubled efforts to fund its government, several international banks are looking at something all together different: a quiet exit from its ties to the island nation.
The U.S. Justice Department is planning to appeal a judge's ruling that it does not have the jurisdiction to sue two European banks it believes helped launder nearly $300 million tied to a massive securities fraud.
A federal court ruling dismissing a $300 million U.S. lawsuit against two European banks may limit how the United States enforces its anti-money laundering laws abroad, say former investigators.
The Southern District of New York collected over 52 percent less in asset forfeitures in fiscal year 2008 than it did in the previous year, the agency said Thursday.
Misconceptions have often fueled the debate on how to stop terrorist financiers since the attacks of September 11, 2001, according to Ibrahim Warde, a professor at Tufts University in Boston. Warde talked with reporter Brian Orsak about what misinformation has cost financial services .
The bank returned its banking license on Jan. 18, three months after the U.S. Justice Department sued the Bank of Cyprus over claims that it aided a Cypriot fugitive launder proceeds from an insider trading scheme.
The cases, seeking nearly $300 million in fines, should be dismissed because they constitute an "unprecedented attempt to apply the U.S. money laundering statute beyond its explicit, but limited" extraterritorial reach, Bank of Cyprus and Lloyds TSB Bank argued in court documents released today.
The fallout from the securities fraud and anti-money laundering case involving the two institutions may continue, suggest compliance consultants, who say financial institutions involved in correspondent transactions with the defendants may face pressure from regulators and law enforcement.
Prosecutors are seeking nearly $300 million in penalties, charging that the two foreign-based banks helped to launder the proceeds of a massive securities fraud involving shares of software maker AremisSoft.