wmlro.com: Family Bank and Trust guilty of money laundering offences.
Family Bank and Trust of Palos Hills, Illinois, has agreed a plea bargain that sees it escape a conviction for money laundering but conspired to fail to file CTRs in a case that makes sense, in a bizarre kind of way.
Way back in 2001, Family Bank and Trust - under former ownership in no way connected to its current owners - became involved in a scheme to launder more than USD800,000, the proceeds of trafficking in pseudoephedrine.
Available legally as a nose and ear decongestant, it works by shrinking blood vessels. But it is also a pre-cursor substance for methamphetamine.
There is simple and elegant logic to the charges:
Marvin Siensa was the president of the on-branch community bank. He was also its CEO, a trust officer and chairman of the board. He and his family held more than 50% of the shares in the holding company that owned some 93% of Family Bank. Siensa died early last year.
It was alleged that Siensa and other staff received deposits of cash of USD10,000 or more but did not file the required cash transaction reports. They caused the bank to open multiple accounts in false or alternate names to enable the deposits to be structured to fall below the reporting threshold.
It's here that the case becomes interesting: the bank was charged with, and has agreed to plead guilty, conspiring with Siensa and others not to file the reports. It has not been charged with assisting in the laundering process, and therefore not with laundering, nor conspiracy to launder. And it has not been charged with failing to file the CTRs.
The Federal government froze and seized USD2,179,008 in the prosecution of Esawi, a case made famous because the defendant alleged improper monitoring of lawyer-client communications in jail. The bank has agreed to give up any claims to that money.
The bank has agreed to be fined USD800,000, to be paid according to an agreed schedule and to be placed on probation.
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