US banks and regulators 'fail' to cut money laundering ("billions of dollars are slipping through")

[Turborama]

Source: BBC

September 28 2010 Last updated at 16:27 GMT -

One of the US's top fraud investigators is warning that America's policing of money laundering is wide open to abuse. Eric Lewis will tell a Congressional hearing on terrorist financing that billions of dollars are slipping through the US banking system.

In a testimony ahead of the hearing on Tuesday he says that only international action can stop the laundering.

The US Committee on Financial Services is taking evidence on "trends in terrorism financing".

Mr Lewis will tell the hearing the "powerful tools" to stop the laundering of drug and terrorist money "are not being used as vigorously and consistently as they could be". Mr Lewis was legal counsel to the liquidators of the collapsed Bank of Credit and Commerce and is an adviser to liquidators running down the companies of fraudster Bernard Madoff.

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11426166

[xchrom]

1. A little less effort defending DADT and a little

More effort here might help.

[valerief]

2. To the banks, the Italian salute.

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[sakabatou]

4. Fucking fat cats

[Turborama]

5. Full testimonies of the 4 participants

Available in PDF format here (apparently, the C-Span video will be added later): http://financialservices.house.gov/Hearings/hearingDetails.aspx?NewsID=1364

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

6. Regulation by morons,

Take a seat for real world money laundering 101:

The primary instrument for money laundering is the retail money order, those with dirty money sell it to a broker at an absurd commission. The broker has dozens of smurfs who go to post offices, western union, payday loansharks and other outlets obtaining money orders with cash - usually for less than a thousand dollars. The broker gives the bad guy a stack of money orders and they go on their way and deposit them outside of US jurisdiction. The broker than physically takes the dirty money off-shore where it is deposited in a real bank outside of US jurisdiction.

How exactly does one effectively regulate that? Ban money orders?

Ever wonder what the roadblocks leaving the US are looking for?

[naaman fletcher]

7. Shouldn't be illegal really anyway

It's all the result of the drug war that we shouldn't even be fighting.

[Demeter]

8. Some National Action Could Be Effective, Too

It's not like reports of Citi and Wells Fargo and other TBTF doing this haven't come in recently--the Zombies will do anything these days for cash. They want to buy their freedom from regulation.

[ananda]

9. I guarantee you...

... it's not all slipping through. Some good portion of those
billions is sticking in the banks or it wouldn't still be happening.