Bank executives who violate anti-money laundering laws may soon face harsher punishment in the United States as regulators consider ways to step up the fight against illicit money flows.
New rules are being weighed that will hold individuals specifically liable, and older rules – rarely used to take action against executives – will also be explored, top officials from the Office of the Comptroller of Currency and the Treasury Department’s illicit finance unit told lawmakers on Thursday.
Regulators and law enforcement authorities have recently settled with topbanks, including HSBC Holdings Plc, which in December agreed to pay a record $1.9 billion to resolve charges it laundered a river of drug money from Mexico. It entered into a deferred prosecution agreement, and no bank employees were charged in connection with the case.
Senators on Thursday focused on that discrepancy and attacked regulators for what they described as lax enforcement.
“If you’re caught with an ounce of cocaine, the chances are good you’re going to jail. … But evidently, if you launder nearly a billion dollars for drug cartels and violate international sanctions, your company pays a fine and you go home and sleep in your own bed at night… I think that’s fundamentally wrong,” said Elizabeth Warren, freshman Democratic senator from Massachusetts.
Detailed news link (Reuters): click here