From the Canadian Broadcasting Company:
Manulife revealed as bank fined $1.15M for violating anti-money laundering reporting rules
The head of Canada's financial crime watchdog agency is second-guessing his decision last year to withhold the name of a bank — which CBC Investigates has identified as Manulife Bank of Canada — fined $1.15 million for not reporting hundreds of transactions it was obligated to report under the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act.
And a bit more - protecting the guilty and getting called out for it:
"In exercising my discretion to withhold the name of the bank, I understand that it may not have met public expectations in relation to openness and transparency," FINTRAC director Gérald Cossette told CBC News in a written statement last week.
He's now promising a review of FINTRAC's penalty policies.
CBC News sources confirmed the case involves Manulife Bank and its failure to report 1,174 international electronic money transfers, 45 cash transactions involving at least $10,000 each, as well as one suspicious transaction.
And what caused the investigation:
FINTRAC was first alerted to the problems after auditing the bank's records in 2014 and determining it failed to report a suspicious transaction in 2012 involving Andrew Strempler, who'd run into serious — and high-profile — legal troubles in the U.S.
Originally from Winnipeg, Strempler made headlines that year when he was arrested and imprisoned in the U.S. for running a mail-order pharmacy, contrary to U.S. laws protecting patented drugs.
During the audit, FINTRAC discovered a wide range of other violations at Manulife Bank, including its failure to report 1,174 international wire transfers of $10,000 or more involving other clients, as well as a general lack of anti-money-laundering safeguards and policies.
Somebody got greedy and they got their fingers burned...
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