Gibraltar Private Bank & Trust Co. warned its shareholders that federal regulators are seeking to hit the bank with a new enforcement action and civil monetary penalties, including against individual board members.
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the U.S. Department of the Treasury are pursing these harsh civil measures because they’ve faulted the Coral Gables-based bank’s compliance with Bank Secrecy Act and anti-money laundering compliance laws, according to Gibraltar’s 2013 annual report to shareholders. This often refers to identifying customers and their source of funds and promptly reporting suspicious transactions to regulators.
Similar BSA/AML issues were the subject of a cease-and-desist order against Gibraltar in October 2010, and it appears regulators aren’t satisfied with the bank’s progress on those areas. In 2012, the bank settled several civil lawsuits from investors in jailed attorney Scott Rothstein’s Ponzi scheme who claimed that Gibraltar, where Rothstein banked and previously had an ownership stake, failed to notify regulators about his suspicious transactions.
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