News
OCC Fines Bank $10 Million for Improper SARs on Terror Financing, Structuring
printThe U.S. Treasury Department Friday fined a Sioux Falls, SD bank branch $10 million for not properly reporting instances of suspected structuring and terrorist financing. The department's Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) said in a civil money penalty against TCF National Bank that a look-back mandated by the agency in a July 2010 consent order revealed that the institution had filed over 2,300 suspicious activity reports (SARs) late. The reports involved $70 million in transactions, some of which likely had been structured. A subsequent Bank Secrecy Act exam in November 2011 concluded that TCF National Bank staffers...
TO READ THE FULL STORY
Related News
The U.S. House of Representatives Tuesday unanimously passed a bill aimed at foreign banks that provide financial services to Hezbollah, an Iran-backed, Lebanon-based Shiite militant group.
The U.S. Treasury Department can expedite civil monetary penalties against financial institutions that violate the Bank Secrecy Act and other rules tied to safety and soundness, under guidelines proposed Thursday.
In the strange and often obscure world of terrorist financing, an account's lack of transactional activity seems an unlikely red flag for anti-money laundering compliance officers.
Federal financial regulators have asked more than a dozen large and midsize banks to better ensure that validations of their anti-money laundering risk models are conducted independently, say officials.
A new U.S. Treasury Department strategy to improve bank oversight will entail more closely reviewing how consistently examiners evaluate risk modeling and transaction monitoring programs, say regulators.
A transactional data handover mandated under a $102 million settlement disclosed Tuesday between the U.S. Justice Department and a defunct Beirut bank will likely lead to new financial crime investigations.
As U.S. officials work to shield American prepaid cards from abuse by financial crooks, foreign-issued stored value products remain a relatively easy avenue to move money into the United States anonymously.
A decision by the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals affirming sanctions against Jordan's largest bank for not turning over data on suspicious accounts could leave some financial institutions with an unwanted choice, say attorneys.
Increases in the rates that U.S. states tax cigarette purchasers has led to a rise in tobacco smuggling by organized crime groups and terrorist financiers, say governmental officials.
U.S. officials have launched a criminal investigation after linking data seized at Osama bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan to a Bank Secrecy Act report, counterterrorism investigators said Monday.
The U.S. Justice Department seized $150 million held for a Lebanese financial institution at accounts at five U.S. banks, as part of a crackdown on a purported terrorist financing network.
American sanctions, terrorist financing prosecutions and rising related compliance costs have made it increasingly difficult for Somalia's U.S.-based community to move money to the African nation.
The U.S. Treasury Department's ability to freeze the funds of suspected terror financiers without a warrant is likely curtailed to emergency circumstances under a court order handed down last week.
Lawmakers are asking the U.S. Justice Department to clarify how it will prosecute individuals and groups that aid terrorist organizations, and whether those cases could involve innocent charity groups.
U.S. efforts to clamp down on terror financiers have been largely a success, a federal official told American lawmakers at a hearing in downtown Manhattan Tuesday.
U.S. lawmakers Thursday questioned how a blacklisted Lebanese terrorist organization works with political leaders and narco-traffickers in Latin America.
The Senate Thursday named David Cohen the nation's top sanctions official after legislators agreed to end a standoff over the U.S. Treasury Department's implementation of financial measures aimed at Iran.
Less than two years after U.S. diplomats mentioned concerns that Qatar's terrorist financing problems may be "the worst in the region," the country has done little to effectively limit the crime, say experts.
Egypt's decision to reopen the Gaza Strip's most important land-based port of entry will complicate international efforts to stem funding for designated terrorist group Hamas, say critics of the move.
An Arizona bank that received TARP funds enters into a settlement agreement with the DOJ for AML violations, the OCC signs consent orders with two different banks for BSA deficiencies and more, in this week's roundup.