Riggs Negotiating With PNC Over Lower Sale Price

[seemslikeadream]

By Terence O'Hara
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, February 2, 2005; Page E01
Riggs has its own powerful incentives to accept a deal even if it means shaving off a couple of dollars from the price. The longer Riggs remains independent, the longer its shareholders must absorb costly regulatory and legal costs associated with the company's anti-money-laundering deficiencies. Its plea agreement with the Department of Justice calls for a five-year probationary period in which it would have to submit to close monitoring by the department. Also, in modified pacts signed with its two main regulators on the day of the guilty plea, Riggs agreed to submit to stiff oversight of its capital levels and operations by bank examiners.

A deal with PNC would remove all that.

"We have to sell this bank," one Riggs insider said.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55823-2005Feb1.html

Read article from here
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&lr=&tab=in&ie=UTF-8&scoring=d&q=riggs+bank&btnG=Search+News

[emad]

1. See also "Riggs fined over Pinochet":

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1191391

Keep it up! Each time I see another Riggs story on the net my heart beats a little faster (if you'll pardon the cliche)...

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4. Chile Ex-Dictator Pinochet Accounts Closed by U.S. (Update2)

Feb. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Chilean former dictator Augusto Pinochet's bank accounts were closed at Banco de Chile in New York by order of U.S. authorities as part of a probe into money laundering at the institution.

The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency also required the bank to agree it won't extend any new credit to Pinochet, the OCC said in a statement. The regulator said it acted after discovering bank personnel in New York had concealed accounts and transactions at Pinochet's direction. The bank said in a statement it also closed accounts in Chile.

``These often included circular transactions with no disclosed or apparent legitimate business purpose and without suspicious activity reporting by the branch,'' the OCC said in a news release on its Web site.

Pinochet, 89, faces investigations in Chile into the origin of millions of dollars that a U.S. Senate report said he held at Riggs Bank in Washington until the accounts were closed in 2002. Riggs Bank last month pleaded guilty to helping Pinochet and the leaders of oil-rich Equatorial Guinea hide hundreds of millions of dollars. Prosecutors are seeking to fine Riggs $16 million.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000086&sid=ae8FeSteWtcw&refer=latin_america

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2. US Cites Chilean Bank Over Pinochet Accounts

Reuters
By Mark Felsenthal

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. regulators on Wednesday announced enforcement actions against Banco de Chile and its branches in New York and Miami in connection with the revelation of hidden accounts belonging to former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet.

The Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the U.S. agency that oversees national banks, said they entered into consent orders with the bank and its two U.S. branches in New York and Miami to address deficiencies in compliance with anti-money laundering laws.

"The OCC took the action following discovery that former branch personnel had concealed accounts of Augusto Pinochet, former Chilean dictator, under the names of nominees and others acting under Pinochet's direction," the OCC said in a statement.

The Fed said it had ordered the Miami branch to conduct a review for suspicious activity by each customer identified as a "senior foreign political figure" since January 1999.

http://olympics.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=7518749

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3. And:

Banco de Chile said it was cooperating with U.S. regulators and has shared with them the results of internal
investigations into transactions between its U.S. branches and Pinochet and his financial adviser, Oscar Aitken.

The bank would not make its investigation public.

Banco de Chile and its branches agreed to beef up anti- money laundering compliance and efforts to identify
suspicious transactions.

A U.S. congressional investigation revealed in July that Riggs Bank, a unit of Riggs National Corp., had failed to
follow anti-money laundering laws and alert regulators to suspicious activities. Among the more sensational charges
investigators levelled at the bank were that it opened accounts for Pinochet that over eight years held some $4
million to $8 million (2.1 million to 4.2 million pounds) at a time.

http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/Swissinfo.html?siteSect=143&sid=5512577