“Several of these customers were foreign financial institutions that effected transactions on behalf of their underlying customers, all of whom were unknown to Aegis. The firm did not identify these trades as suspicious even after its clearing firm alerted Aegis to AML red flags and specific suspicious low-priced securities transactions.”
Integrity is doing the right thing when nobody is watching; arguably a forgone and uncommon virtue these days, especially on Wall Street. Plausible deniability and ignorance is not the issue; the financial firm and its employees know right from wrong. Turning a blind eye equates to complicity.
“Money laundering is giving oxygen to organised crime.”
– Enrique Peña Nieto, President of Mexico
Business Ownership of Compliance Program
In the long run, a sophisticated Anti-Money Laundering program is worth its weight in gold; it discourages drug traffickers and terrorists from laundering ill gotten proceeds. However, and as often is the case, adequate training is routinely overlooked and not prioritized.
