Fisher Capital Management Corporate News: FinCEN Warns Financial Institutions On Transactions From Separatist Moldovan Region

http://blogs.wsj.com/corruption-currents/2011/04/15/fincen-warns-financial-institutions-on-transactions-from-separatist-moldovan-region/?mod=google_news_blog
APRIL 15, 2011, 5:25 PM ET

By Samuel Rubenfeld

The U.S. Department of Treasury’s agency tasked with policing money laundering issued an advisory Friday warning banks and other financial institutions about transactions coming from the region of Transnistria in Moldova.
Transnistria operates as a separatist, unrecognized area of the Eastern European country, and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, said the area “may still present a vulnerability” to U.S. financial institutions offering services or maintaining correspondent banking relationships there.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. issued a warning in August 2009 concerning entities doing banking activity unauthorized by the National Bank of Moldova.
“Currently, the anti-money laundering laws of Moldova are not being enforced against banks operating within Transnistria because financial institutions within this specific region are not under the supervision of the Moldovan government,” FinCEN said in the advisory.
Despite previous warnings by the Moldovan central bank, “large wire transfers are still being routed out of the Transnistria region and into financial institutions in other jurisdictions,” FinCEN said.
The National Bank of Moldova provided a list of entities it said were operating as unauthorized financial institutions in Transnistria.