Think Banks are Criminals? Well, This One Was and Got Caught Big Time

The former ABN AMRO Bank N.V., now named the Royal Bank of Scotland N.V., has agreed to forfeit $500 million to the United States in connection with a conspiracy to defraud the United States, to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and to violate the Trading with the Enemy Act (TWEA), as well as a violation of the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA). A criminal information was filed May 10 in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia charging the former ABN AMRO, a Dutch corporation that was headquartered in Amsterdam, with one count of violating the BSA and one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and violate the IEEPA and TWEA. The bank waived indictment, agreed to the filing of the information, and has accepted and acknowledged responsibility for its conduct. ABN AMRO agreed to forfeit $500 million as part of a deferred-prosecution agreement, also filed today in the District of Columbia. A U.S. district court judge May 10 accepted the agreement. Under the BSA, it is a crime to willfully fail to establish an adequate anti-money laundering program. The IEEPA and TWEA violations related to ABN AMRO conspiring to facilitate illegal U.S. dollar transactions on behalf of financial institutions and customers from Iran, Libya, the Sudan, Cuba, and other countries sanctioned in programs administered by the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Affairs Control.

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