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A two-branch bank in Missouri helped suspected sweepstakes scammers evade Bank Secrecy Act-reporting thresholds and waived transactional limits for an online payday lender in a bid to secure and retain business from high-risk clients, federal prosecutors have alleged. In plea agreements filed July 2, Kevin Brandes, 60, and 56-year-old William Graham—who five years ago agreed to forfeit $30 million from their Next-Gen sweepstakes businesses to the Federal Trade Commission and state of Missouri—admitted abetting "Bank-1," elsewhere identified as Lead Bank in Kansas City, to subvert the Bank Secrecy Act from 2013 to 2019. The FTC alleged in the settlement that...