Archive

March 25, 2015

Schlumberger Oilfield Holdings Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Schlumberger Ltd., agreed to enter a guilty plea and pay a $232,708,356 penalty for violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act by willfully facilitating illegal transactions and engaging in trade with Iran and Sudan.  Whistleblower Insider

March 19, 2015

Bank of New York Mellon agreed to pay $714 million to settle charges the bank engaged in fraud and other misconduct when providing foreign exchange (“FX”) services to its customers.  As part of the settlements with the US and New York, BNYM admitted that contrary to representations to clients that it provided “best rates” and “best execution” for FX transactions, the Bank actually gave clients the worst reported interbank rates of the trading day.  The charges originated in a lawsuit brought by a whistleblower under the New York False Claims Act.  Whistleblower Insider

March 12, 2015

Germany-based Commerzbank AG and its US branch Commerzbank AG New York agreed to forfeit $563 million and pay a $79 million fine for violations of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and the Bank Secrecy Act relating to its funneling of millions of dollars through the US financial system on behalf of Iranian and Sudanese entities subject to US economic sanctions.  The bank also entered into settlement agreements with the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, and the New York State Department of Financial Services for a combined regulatory payout of $1.45 billion.  Whistleblower Insider

March 3, 2015

The DOJ US Trustee Program entered into a national settlement agreement with JPMorgan Chase Bank N.A. requiring Chase to pay more than $50 million (including cash payments, mortgage loan credits and loan forgiveness) to over 25,000 homeowners who are or were in bankruptcy.  As part of the settlement, Chase acknowledges it filed in bankruptcy courts around the country more than 50,000 payment change notices that were improperly signed by persons who had not reviewed the accuracy of the notices.  DOJ

January 30, 2015

Maxim Chukharev, former information technology manager for Liberty Reserve, a company that operated one of the world’s most widely used digital currency services, was sentenced to 36 months in prison for conspiring to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business. According to the government, Liberty Reserve billed itself as the Internet’s “largest payment processor and money transfer system” but instead was created, structured and operated to help users conduct illegal transactions anonymously and launder the proceeds of their crimes. According to court records, before being shut down by the government in May 2013, Liberty Reserve conducted approximately 55 million transactions through its system totaling more than $6B in funds which encompassed suspected proceeds of credit card fraud, identity theft, investment fraud, computer hacking, child pornography, narcotics trafficking and other crimes.DOJ

September 9, 2014

Don Langford, former chief credit officer and senior vice president of Nebraska-based TierOne Bank, pleaded guilty for his role in a scheme to defraud TierOne’s shareholders and regulators. Specifically, Langford conspired with others to hide losses at the bank by cooking the bank’s books and reporting falsified information to stakeholders, regulators, external auditors, and the investing public. The bank even made an unsuccessful attempt to get taxpayer TARP funds in November 2008. TierOne filed for bankruptcy shortly after the Office of Thrift Supervision shut the bank down in June 2010. DOJ

August 21, 2014

Bank of America agreed to pay $16.65 billion to resolve federal and state mortgage fraud claims against the bank and its former and current subsidiaries, including Countrywide Financial Corporation andMerrill Lynch. It is the largest civil settlement with a single entity in American history. And it includes a $5 billion penalty under the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act (FIRREA), the largest FIRREA penalty ever. As part of the settlement, BofA acknowledged misrepresenting the quality of billions of dollars worth of risky mortgage loans. Whistleblower Insider

August 14, 2014

Azzeddine El Amine of Costa Rica pleaded guilty to money laundering and operating an unlicensed money transmitting business in connection with his role in running Liberty Reserve, a company that operated one of the world’s most widely used digital currency services. Liberty Reserve was created to help users conduct illegal transactions anonymously and launder the proceeds of their crimes, and it emerged as one of the principal money transfer agents used by cybercriminals around the world to distribute, store, and launder the proceeds of their illegal activity. El Amine served as a principal deputy to Liberty Reserve founder Arthur Budovsky. Before being shut down by the government in May 2013, Liberty Reserve had more than one million users worldwide, including more than 200,000 users in the United States, who conducted approximately 55 million transactions through its system and laundered more than $6 billion in suspected proceeds of crimes, including credit card fraud, identity theft, investment fraud, computer hacking, child pornography and narcotics trafficking. DOJ

July 28, 2014

Lloyds Banking Group agreed to pay $86M for manipulating submissions for the London InterBank Offered Rate (LIBOR), a leading global benchmark interest rate. DOJ

July 24, 2014

An $80M False Claims Act judgment was entered against BNP Paribas for submitting false claims for payment guarantees issued by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The judgment resolves government charges that from 1998 to 2005 the French bank participated in a scheme to defraud the USDA’s Supplier Credit Guarantee Program under which American agricultural companies are encouraged to sell their products abroad. DOJ