PNC fallout - Riggs Bank

[seemslikeadream]

Saturday, October 2, 2004


The PNC banking scandal is catching up with American Insurance Group. The Securities and Exchange Commission has notified AIG of pending civil charges. It's about time.
The firm helped PNC set up Enron-style partnerships to take $762 million in bad loans off the books. After it was caught, PNC reduced 2001 earnings by $155 million or 27 percent. Last year, it agreed to pay $90 million to shareholders and $25 million in penalties.

PNC said that AIG and then-outside auditor Ernst & Young (also an object of federal investigation) signed off on the legerdemain. The premise was that PNC (or is that the executive suite?) was best served by hiding bad news.

...

With a shaming experience part of the corporate culture, PNC is engaged in deciding if it will clean up another mess, not of its making, by buying troubled Riggs National Bank.

Among the Washington, D.C., institution's notables: It allegedly held millions for former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, allegedly allowed Saudi funds it held to find their way to two Sept. 11 hijackers, and was ordered to pay $25 million in fines after being linked to money-laundering for Saudi diplomats.

If PNC still likes the deal, it will be after all the Riggs skeletons are uncloseted.

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http://pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/opinion/archive/s_257069.html