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News Releases
7/21/2004 USA PATRIOT Act Monitor News Release: Report
Slams Riggs Bank on AML Implementation, Federal Regulators on Enforcement
The Riggs Report, as the recent report on the Riggs Bank issued by the Minority
Staff of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations is now generally called,
describes the AML failures of the bank but also assigns considerable blame to
the OCC, the bank's primary regulator, for being lax in its supervision. The
OCC is faulted for (1) accepting assurances from Riggs that it would correct
its AML deficiencies and thereby delaying enforcement actions, (2) ignoring
the pleas of an OCC staff examiner who encouraged the agency to look more closely
at the bank's practices, (3) failing to include significant discussion of AML
deficiencies in several Reports on Examination given to the bank's board, (4)
not initiating penalty proceedings until press reports called attention to accounts
of certain political figures at the bank, and (5) allowing a former OCC examiner
who became employed by Riggs to attend meetings between the agency and the bank
regarding its AML problems. The Minority Staff Report, Money Laundering and
Foreign Corruption: Enforcement and Effectiveness of the Patriot Act: Case Study
Involving Riggs Bank, suggests a number of improvements that must be made
by the OCC and other bank regulators. Some suggestions and observations in the
Report will undoubtedly influence examiners in upcoming reviews. The Report
and its implications will be the subject of an in-depth analysis in the August
issue of the Monitor
The USA PATRIOT Act Monitor and the news releases prepared by the Monitor staff are services of the Civic Research Institute, publisher of Money Laundering, Terrorism, and Financial Institutions, by Raymond Banoun and John Ensminger. Contact and subscription information may be obtained at http://www.civicresearchinstitute.com/moneylaundering or by calling the Civic Research Institute at 609-683-4450 (fax: 609-683-7291).