Sunday, February 28, 2016

Gibraltar Hit With Regulatory Action For

Gibraltar hit with regulatory action for secrecy act and anti-money laundering violations

Coral Gables-based Gibraltar Private Bank & Trust was hit with two separate penalties related to compliance with the Bank Secrecy Act and anti-money laundering, regulators said Thursday.

The announcements follow a controversy earlier this week against the bank, which has assets of US $ 1.6 billion at December 31
The sanctions are the latest incidents related to the Ponzi scheme Scott Rothstein $ 1.2 trillion. Rothstein, an investor in Gibraltar, is serving 50 years behind bars.

Network Financial Crimes Enforcement said "there are grounds" for a civil penalty $ 4 million against Gibraltar by "violations of compliance laundering money laundering intentional". The bank admitted the facts described by FinCEN in the document prescribed.

Also Thursday, the Office of the Comptroller of Currency announced a civil penalty of $ 2.5 million against Gibraltar for violations of the BSA, at the same time, release the bank consent previous orders. FinCEN cites the earlier findings of the OCC that Gibraltar had violated the following regulatory requirements of the BSA orders that need to improve their programs. The payment of $ 2.5 million to $ 1.5 OCC and FinCEN meet evaluation.

CEO of Gibraltar Adolfo Henriques told the Business Journal that the bank is satisfied that the judgment consent order resolves the OCC.

FinCEN found that Gibraltar has not implemented adequate BSA and AML compliance procedures. As a result of these failures, the bank lost red flags associated with the account including Rothstein Rothstein used his account of millions of dollars in remittances in round large amounts of dollars, which is indicative of a Ponzi pattern, as FinCEN.

Gibraltar "deliberately violated the program requirements reporting and recordkeeping BSA February 2008 to October 2014," according to FinCEN.

The bank does not implement and maintain an adequate AML program, develop a program to identify the right customer, etc., according to the regulator. These deficiencies eventually led to the lack of reporting 120 red flag, or suspicious activity reports (SAR), in relation to almost $ 558 million in transactions.

Part of the failure of Gibraltar was due to a large volume of alerts generated by the bank's compliance system, which meant that the BSA bank analysts were unable to time or adequately consider all alerts, FinCEN said. Between August 2013 and the end of July 2014, Gibraltar is not to review and process nearly 60 percent of their monthly alerts, he said. The regulator also found that Gibraltar alerts that should have been closed higher and resulted in the filing of a SAR

"Gibraltar has allowed the investigation and languishing submit a report of suspicious activity in activities after information about the activities Rothstein Rothstein appeared in the media," according to FinCEN.

Gibraltar agreed that none of his lawyers, agents, partners, directors, or any person authorized to speak on behalf of the bank to make a public comment that contradicts the assessment of FinCEN.

"All these deficiencies Scott Rothstein allowed - that appeared on paper to launch a law firm successfully - to use the bank for the purpose of operating a massive Ponzi scheme," said founder Andrew Ittleman and based partner Miami Fuerst Ittleman David and Joseph. "This type of program" paper "is very common among regulated companies, but as this case shows, the government is taking more public measures to remove them and put actual performance every time."

The other half of Thursday Gibraltar regulatory discipline came from the OCC, which found that the bank did not properly ensured the timely submission of reports SAR after the regulator ordered to improve compliance in 2010 and 2011.

These actions respond to the recent news that former CEO Steven Hayworth Gibraltar follows the bank for $ 40 million in damages for breach of employment contract and fraud.

In April 2015, Gibraltar has revealed that he was being investigated by the US Attorney's Office and the Department of confiscation of the property of the section of justice and money laundering BSA and AML.

Thursday, February 25, 2016

Cams Exam Quesiton No 27

Question No 27:

Tom works as a compliance officer at ABC bank. He is looking at the transactions of one of the bank's customers, Mr. Brown. Mr. Brown is the owner of a check cashing company which performs only check cashing services. Over the last six months, Mr. Brown has not made withdrawals of cash against check deposits. He also deposited two checks for US$2,000 each that were issued by a casino. When checking the KYC file, Tom sees that, when opening the account, Mr. Brown had requested detailed information about fees and commissions that are charged by the bank. What would arouse your suspicion the most? That Mr. Brown:

A. Deposited checks from casinos
B. Did not make withdrawals of cash against check deposits
C. Showed uncommon curiosity about commissions and fees charged
D. Does not have an escrow account

Answer: B

Sunday, February 21, 2016

The Bancorp Appoints Sepideh Behram SVP, Chief Compliance Officer

Today announced the appointment of SPV Sepideh Behram, Director of Compliance:.In his new role, Behram overseeing all risk management programs in compliance with the organization, ensuring better consumer protection of its kind in the Third Bancorp and among its partners and service providers. According to Steven Turowski, EVP, Chief Risk Officer,

"Appointment of Sepideh Behram the essential role of Chief Compliance is another example of the commitment of the Bancorp to design and maintain a culture of risk of best- in-class performance. Sepideh has a good understanding of our private banking activities of a single model of etiquette, policies and standards.

This fund, along with its extensive regulatory experience, all of us at the Bancorp delighted to have Sepideh directs one of the most important functions of our organization " .

Before joining The Bancorp, Behram served as vice president of Global Compliance and Ethics for payments to American Express Global Corporate, and as president of the conformity of Travelex Global Business Payments NA.

He was also the lead lawyer for compliance in the center of the section Compliance with the rules of the American Bankers Association (ABA), which oversees regulatory efforts in money laundering and matter Bank Secrecy Act by issuing letters commentary and industry commitment for discussions on a bill.

Before the ABA Behram he served as global managing money laundering for E * TRADE Financial and as deputy head of compliance with E * TRADE Bank, as well as various roles in Monroe Bank & Trust in Monroe, Michigan, including the Second Vice President and special asset manager, overseeing training and recoveries in commercial loans.


"It was a pleasure to be part of The Bancorp and the opportunity to work with internal colleagues who are leaders in the industry. I'm excited about the opportunities ahead for our organization and to continue working with a stellar team of compliance professionals to provide program best in class performance, "said Behram.

Behram has a JD from the Faculty of Law at Michigan State University and a B. A. in political science at George Washington University.

She is a member of the District of Columbia and Michigan bar and American Bar Association. Behram is president of ACEP Advisory Board of the ABA and co-chair of the Section in the US capital of ACAMS.

Here you can find latest exams questions of Acams Practice Test

Thursday, February 18, 2016

Cams Exam Quesiton No 26

Question No 26:

What is the reasoning behind implementing a "risk-based" anti- money laundering approach?

A.
It will keep the regulators focused on money laundering controls in sectors beyond banks.
B.
No institution can hope to detect all instances of wrongdoing by customers, including money laundering.
C.
A quantitative approach will generate better results than a qualitative approach.
D.
It allows the institution to focus on selling products that have a better return on investment.

Answer: B

Sunday, February 14, 2016

Buhari’s anti-money laundering Bill



The origin of most of the economic and financial crimes are products which are washed frequently with accommodation in institutions or financial and non-financial investments designated legitimate businesses.

According to the Oxford Dictionary advanced student (International Student Edition), bleaching involves moving the money was obtained illegally in bank accounts abroad or legal transactions by making it difficult for people to know where the money comes from.

The range of illicit activities in which the product can be bleached include corruption, immorality, fraud, drug trafficking, theft of crude oil, forgery, alteration, unauthorized mineral resources exploitation, trafficking, baby factory of armed robbery, kidnapping, smuggling and trade in endangered species, stolen art and archaeological artifacts.

In most cases, the money from these activities is very hard to find, except for experts in investigating financial crime.

There is no doubt that the campaign to coerce and control economic and financial crimes in Nigeria is growing under the current administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.

In a way, this campaign and the international correlation can be observed at this critical time of globalization, the economy and market reforms globally in the commitment to clean the public and the environment of the business is in the heart of readers to reverse the stagnant economies of many countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa.
 
In this regard, the international financial institutions (IFIs), particularly the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the United Nations (UN) and the European Union (EU), stressed the paramount importance in various forums on the fight against economic and financial crimes.

In particular, international financial institutions have signed transparency and the overall integrity of compliance protocols as essential Financial Action Task Force (FATF) for countries that receive their own bill of economic health and financial advice or assistance . This is due to the inescapable fact that these crimes are at odds with the efforts of the Cold War to steer developing countries towards the economic rejuvenation and sustainability.

For example, in many peripheral economies in sub-Saharan Africa, including Nigeria, economic and financial crimes, among others, led to an economic growth without development and equity, deprivation and auxiliary mass extreme poverty, social unrest and crime and insecurity, destabilization of viable and credible process of transparency and accountability in the governance of both public and private, loss of capacity utilization, capital flight, in the lull entrepreneurship, institutional decay, unfavorable external image and the resulting decline in foreign direct investment (FDI) and visa problems.

In recent years, the arrangements or agreements with the emerging international economic and financial crimes include institutional frameworks FATF and the Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units Global (UIF). Instructive The FATF was created with the primary goal of a global campaign against economic and financial crime and illicit flows of money from trafficking in hard drugs and arms.

Until now, many countries have signed the protocol initiated by this international organization based in Paris. A FATF - style regional body (FSRB) that Nigeria is a member of Group Inter-Governmental Action against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA), a specialized agency of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) based in Dakar, Senegal. Essentially, GIABA is responsible for facilitating the adoption and implementation of anti-money laundering (AML) and combating the financing of terrorism (CFT rules) in the sub-region, while ensuring compliance / CTF international AML.

As a signatory of the Protocols of the FATF and the World Egmont Group, Nigeria has taken a bold step to establish the Committee on Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in 2002. Since then, the EFCC has made substantial progress in its relentless and determined efforts to curb economic and financial crime, with a large number of criminals who are harassed and jailed by the commission. quite easily, these efforts resulted in Nigeria hit by the FATF against the risk of countries that are subject to financial crimes.

Given the need for new impetus to strengthen the fight against money laundering, terrorist financing and other illegal activities that threaten and undermine our financial system and national security, the National Assembly in 2014 proposed a bill to the creation of the financial intelligence Centre of Nigeria (NFIC).

The bill, which was initiated separately and much debated in the Senate and the House of Representatives considers certain provisions of the Law on the EFCC and changed the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, by transferring activities the financial intelligence Unit of Nigeria (FIU) against money laundering currently domiciled in the EFCC NFIC project. Unfortunately, lawmakers of the 7th National Assembly could not pass this important bill before leaving office last year.

Yet another hope to address cases of money laundering in Nigeria was revived by President Buhari, who recently sent the "Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Bill, 2016" to the National Assembly for consideration .

In the analysis, the bill aims to establish the office in money laundering (OCME), which are independent in the performance of their duties and responsibilities. according to "Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Bill 2016", while the author is defined as "a person who knows, you should reasonably have known or suspected that the property has a criminal commits an offense if hidden, costumes, converts, transfers or removes the property of Nigeria. the bill provides for any farm penalty convicted of the crime, and judgment shall be imprisoned for a period of not less than seven years without the option of a fine.

Under the "money laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Bill 2016," a bank is convicted of money laundering would be liable for a fine of not less than N25 million and a non-financial corporation occupation and designated receive a fine of less than N10 million if found guilty of the crime. the bill also provides for three or more years in prison for anyone who does not report those involved in the illegal act.

Needless to say that the draft law against money laundering in Buhari is in conjunction with the urgent need to create a formidable body to combat money laundering, terrorist financing and other financial crimes in Nigeria intelligence.

Such a body - as required by the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act 2012 (as amended), the Law on Terrorism (Prevention) Act 2013 (as amended) or any other relevant law or regulations - would be good policy mechanisms and decision - do require adequate, quality and timely analysis needed to control and suppress the flow of funds from illicit activities that could have a negative impact on our economy and national security of a deeper or information so quickly.

Thursday, February 11, 2016

Cams Exam Quesiton No 25

Question No 25:

A bank in Italy holds a business account for an Italian company that sells gold throughout Europe and the Western Hemisphere. The bank knows the purpose of this account is to receive payment for sales. A review of the account shows a pattern of wire transfers coming from payable-through accounts. There is also a pattern of purchases of gold bullion held in Swiss banks. The MOST important factor in assessing whether money laundering is a threat is that the?

A. Customer sells gold in regions where it carries an important or religious significance that adds to the high intrinsic value.
B. Payments come from third-party accounts.
C. Payments received are in the form of wire transfers instead of cash.
D. Account holder maintains gold bullion rather than finished pieces of jewelry.

Answer: B

Thursday, February 4, 2016

Cams Exam Quesiton No 25

Question No 25:

The Third EU Money Laundering Directive of 2005 applies to which of the following firms?

A. Auditors, estate agents based in the EU.
B. U.S. Financial institutions covered by the USA Patriot Act.
C. Shell firms inside and outside the EU.
D. EU based high value good dealers who deal in cash of 10,000 Euro or more.

Answer: A