Friday, January 9, 2009
The bank Lloyds TSB agreed to pay a fine of $ 350 million for having helped their clients evade U.S. sanctions on trade with Sudan and Iran.
The London-based bank acknowledged its responsibility for criminal behavior, according to court documents filed before a federal court in Washington.
The Justice Department indicated that in an even date back to 1995, Lloyds falsified involving wire transfers to countries or individuals on the list of U.S. sanctions.
The bank was accused of deliberately removing information from customers _un process to which the employees of Lloyds called "stripped" _, so that the wire transfers to move without being detected through filters in U.S. financial institutions.
"For over 12 years, Lloyds anonymous facilitated movement of hundreds of millions of dollars from nations sanctioned by the United States through our financial system," said Undersecretary of Justice Matthew Friedrich.
To reach agreement on the investigation by the Justice Department and the district attorney of New York, Lloyds agreed to be formally charged, and instead it was agreed that bringing a criminal information document. The company paid 175 million in fines to the U.S. as the New York County, authorities reported.
Tereroristas after the attacks of 2001, the United States intensified its scrutiny of banks that may be moving money linked to terrorists or regimes offenders.
As a result, according to court documents, Lloyds executives decided in 2003 to stop providing "stripped" Iranian banks with branches in England, but continued to do so for four Sudanese banks until January 2007. In 2004 the U.S. withdrew the sanctions applied to Libya.
Most of the money _unos 300 million dólares_ was mobilized on behalf of Iranian banks between 2002 and 2004, according to prosecutors. Lloyds helped move 20 million dollars on behalf of customers of a bank of Sudan, and about 20 million dollars on behalf of a single client Libyan, according to the text in the court.
Last month, Lloyds had assets of $ 700,000 million and more than 67,000 employees.
Labels: Business
