Posted on 05/04/2008 8:27:30 AM PDT by khnyny
WASHINGTON -- Federal prosecutors are investigating Wachovia Corp. as part of a broad probe of alleged laundering of drug proceeds by Mexican and Colombian money-transfer companies, according to people familiar with the matter.
Wachovia is one of several large U.S. banks that have come under scrutiny for their relationships with such companies. It is in discussions with the Justice Department about reforms in its compliance system and faces a possible deferred-prosecution agreement that would require extensive federal oversight.
An official of Wachovia said it is cooperating in the probe. Wachovia, based in Charlotte, N.C., and some other U.S. banks severed relationships with Mexican foreign-exchange firms in December and January after authorities began their inquiries. Some have struck agreements with the government to improve their efforts to fight money laundering, avoiding prosecution.
The remittance industry transmits more than $50 billion from the U.S. to Latin America annually, mostly legitimate wages from immigrants caring for their relatives. The banking industry has long sought a foothold in the lucrative industry, which charges high fees to move money. But it is also a natural target for narcotics traffickers seeking a way to move the proceeds of their U.S. drug sales to Latin America without detection.
A spokeswoman for Wachovia, Christy Phillips-Brown, said, "Wachovia is committed to maintaining a strong anti-money-laundering program."
The investigation is the latest headache for the North Carolina bank, which has also been pressured by the credit turmoil and fallout from its 2006 acquisition of a California home lender. Wachovia recently cut its dividend and raised $8 billion in capital to shore up its financial state. And on Friday, it agreed to pay up to $144 million to settle a probe of its ties to telemarketers and payment processors accused of obtaining bank-account data from the elderly and withdrawing money from...
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Related article, more shenanigans:
The Wachovia Corporation agreed on Friday to pay as much as $144 million to end an investigation that accuses the bank of allowing telemarketers to use its accounts to steal millions of dollars.
The settlement, one of the largest penalties ever demanded by the federal Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, concludes an 18-month inquiry into Wachovias relationships with schemes that investigators say stole from thousands of victims, many of them elderly.
I wonder how the former stockholders of A.G.Edwards feel about voting for the takeover of the brokerage firm by Wachovia.
I guess they can drop that question “habla español?” from the job application now.
Michelle Malkin has an interesting take on this story. It’s well worth reading some of the comments too.
Seems that it’s been years since I heard the term “Latin America”. Maybe just need some more sleep.
The “analysts” have upgraded the stock. LOL. What a farce.
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2008/04/29/ap4945517.html
= "The remittance industry transmits more than $50 billion from the U.S. to Latin America annually, mostly legitimate wages from illegal aliens shipping cash to relatives back home immigrants caring for their relatives.
There, fixed it!!
Supply and demand would crash down on their heads. If everyone had a FREE supply, there would be no demand, the price would plummet to what it should be. FREE!
This is the ONLY way to win the WOD! Prohibition only creates gangster businesses! Legalization takes their profit away, and forces them to find other employment!
In other words, they’ll wachovia drug money.
American banks laundering Latin American drug money?
Note that while their Latin American operations are small compared to Citi and some other financial institutions this probe is hitting Wachovia. Wachovia has a corporate policy that prohibits donating company funds to political candidates.
Citi, who have much larger Latin American operations and have long been accused by the press in Latin America of laundering drug money, contributed over $594,000 and spent over $6.9 million on corporate lobiests.
That doesn’t include thousands more in donations that Vikram Pandit and other corporate officers. Vikram is an interesting case. He contributes most of his donations to Republicans ($25,000 to the RNC in 1995) but he always donates the max to Senator Schumer and not a dime to the junior senator from New York.
Sorry, the contribution dates are 2005.
Has anybody else here had to watch a gay anti-money laundering video as a condition of employment?
As if common sense wouldn’t tell you that somebody walking in to deposit $4,000,000 out of the blue and then wiring it out the next day wouldn’t set off a red flag to even a retarded monkey who never watched the video.
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