Treasury Imposes Sanctions Against 2 Foreign Financial Institutions

On August 24, 2004, the Federal Register carried two notices of proposed rulemaking of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), U.S. Department of Treasury, announcing the imposition of special measures against two foreign financial institutions for their standing as primary money laundering concerns, pursuant to the authority in 31 U.S.C. § 5318A of the Bank Secrecy Act. In both cases FinCEN proposes to prohibit covered financial institutions from opening and maintaining correspondent or payable-through accounts for, or on behalf of, Infobank of Belarus and the First Merchant Bank OSH Ltd. of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus...[more]