WASHINGTON-The news story that helped ignite the effort to update and expand money laundering statutes and stress more regulatory supervision of financial accounts has subsided somewhat with the guilty pleas entered by the two principals in the Bank of New York case in early February. But the case of the $7.5 billion wash of Russian cash into BONY accounts through some 87,000 wire transfers- that failed to attract any real attention to its source- may serve as a reminder that even the most sophisticated institutions may fall down when it comes to supervisory oversight. The two principals, a man and wife, since fired by the bank, pleaded guilty to operating an illegal money transfer business. Investigators concluded that they could not be charged with money laundering because the purpose of the funnelled money was to avoid paying Russian taxes, and seeking to evade foreign taxes is not a crime in the United States. -
caburger@cutimes.com
