Pakistani bank says New York regulator seeks to fine it up to $630 million

The New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) is seeking to fine Habib Bank Ltd nearly $630 million for deficiencies relating to compliance with state and federal laws at its only U.S. branch, an official of the Pakistan bank said on Monday.

If imposed, the penalty would be the largest ever faced by a Pakistani financial institution.

The DFS could not immediately be reached for comment.

The compliance issues date to 2015 when the DFS told Karachi-listed Habib Bank (HBL)(HBL.KA) to institute a series of reforms pertaining to the bank’s policies for preventing illicit money transfers.

A December 2015 DFS statement said it had “identified significant breakdowns” in the bank’s anti-money laundering compliance. read more »

Former Judge Sentenced to 4 Years in Social Security Fraud Case

A former administrative law judge has been sentenced to four years in prison for taking bribes from a Kentucky lawyer in a $600 million Social Security fraud case.

Eighty-one-year-old David B. Daugherty of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, pleaded guilty in May to taking more than $600,000 in bribes in cases involving clients of Eric C. Conn, who is now a fugitive and was sentenced in absentia to 12 years in prison.

Conn represented thousands in eastern Kentucky in Social Security cases. Daugherty heard their appeals in Huntington, West Virginia.

Conn pleaded guilty to submitting false information to Social Security and making illegal payments to Daugherty. Then, he cut off his electronic monitor and disappeared. read more »

Ex-Banker Gets 7 Years in Prison for Taking Bribes While African Minister

A Guinea-born former Wall Street banker was sentenced to seven years in prison for laundering $8.5 million in bribes that he took while a government minister in the West African country.

Mahmoud Thiam was convicted in May of taking illegal payments to help China International Fund Ltd. win exclusive rights to mine Guinea’s iron, gold, diamonds and bauxite deposits and then laundering the money into the U.S. Thiam served as Guinea’s mining minister from 2009 to 2010 after spending 14 years as an international investment banker at Merrill Lynch & Co. and UBS Group AG in New York.

"I sense no acknowledgment of the deep injury he has done to Guinea and to the rule of law," U.S. District Judge Denise Cote said in sentencing Thiam to two years more than the five Thiam’s lawyer requested. read more »

U.S. charges ex-radio host who hoped 'spell' would stop fraud probe

U.S. authorities on Monday charged a former radio host with fraudulently raising $20 million in a scam bearing the hallmarks of a Ponzi scheme, while hoping to cast a “spell” to silence lawyers trying to investigate her.

Dawn Bennett, who hosted “Financial Myth Busting with Dawn Bennett,” diverted about half of what she raised in a 2-1/2 year scheme to repay earlier investors, buy luxuries including many dozen pairs of shoes and pay back rent to the Dallas Cowboys for a luxury suite at AT&T Stadium, authorities said.

Prosecutors also disclosed the discovery in an Aug. 2 search of Bennett’s penthouse in Chevy Chase, Maryland, of two freezers containing sealed Mason jars bearing the initials of U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission lawyers, on whom Bennett may have hoped to cast a “hoodoo spell.” read more »