The Fall of Riggs

[seemslikeadream]

Wednesday, July 21, 2004; Page A18


IT'S SAD WHEN a local institution disappears, and the case of Riggs Bank is especially so. In an era of interstate behemoths, the 168-year-old Riggs was the city's sole remaining locally owned major bank. It played a large and laudable role in the city's philanthropic life. We hope that Pittsburgh-based PNC Financial Services Group Inc., which is buying Riggs National Corp., will continue that tradition. But experience suggests that outside ownership often results in a diminished commitment to civic well-being.




It's also sad that Riggs was to a significant degree responsible for its own demise, as the bank's niche -- catering to embassies and other foreign clients -- became its downfall. In May the bank agreed to pay a $25 million penalty, the largest ever assessed, for violating the Bank Secrecy Act, which requires banks to guard against money laundering, determine that funds deposited in their accounts are from legitimate sources and report suspicious transactions. The misconduct involved Riggs accounts with Saudi Arabia and Equatorial Guinea, whose surging oil revenue had made it Riggs's biggest customer.

Last week, just before the PNC sale was announced, a report from the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations provided disturbing new details about the bank's dealings with Equatorial Guinea and former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. Senate investigators found that top Riggs officers solicited Mr. Pinochet to open accounts with the bank, which then accepted millions of dollars in deposits without questioning the source of his wealth, helped him set up offshore corporations to hide his control of the funds and concealed the existence of the accounts from federal bank examiners.

The bank's senior leadership also courted the business of Equatorial Guinea's president, Teodoro Obiang Nguema, one of the world's more corrupt dictators. Riggs accepted nearly $13 million in cash deposits to the accounts of Mr. Obiang and his wife, never once filing a suspicious-activity report. A Riggs official hauled a suitcase stuffed with $3 million in $100 bills from the Equatorial Guinea Embassy; the money was deposited in offshore accounts controlled by Mr. Obiang

more
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A484-2004Jul20.html

[ret5hd]

1. No mention of Jonathan Bush, pResident bush's* uncle...

being senior management of the bank?

no, i didn't read the article as i don't want to register. So if he is mentioned, ignore this post.

[bobthedrummer]

2. Somehow or other a Bush is profiting from the behavior of W's admin.

They are one of many US power elite dynasties that has historically profited with America's enemies and made a killing on war.:grr:

The example of Prescott Bush is educational.

How The Bush Family Wealth Is Linked To The Jewish Holocaust
by Toby Rogers
http://globalresearch.ca/articles/ROG309A.html

Gold Fillings, Auschwitz and George Bush
http://www.spiritone.com/~gdy52150/bushies.htm

[redqueen]

8. Many registrations are available under 'dailykos'

with the password 'dailykos'

Just FYI for future reference. :)

[SpiralHawk]

11. Further, no mention that Jonathan Bush

is a Skull & Boner. Just like George AWOL Bush, Poppy "Prudent" Bush, and Grandpappy Prescott "Banker to the Nazis" Bush

Just for the record.

[nodictators]

3. It must run in the family

The Silverado Kid, Neil Bush, helped take down the savings and loan of that name. He's was subsequently barred, for life as I recall, from being an officer in a banking institution.

[gratuitous]

4. Gee, the demise of a little mom-and-pop bank

That catered to the ultrarich and the ultrapowerful. So sad to see a plucky little entrepreneurial pocket of graft and corruption taken over by the Really Big Boys.

Some days you don't know whether to laugh or cry. So come November, I'm gonna vote.

[Minstrel Boy]

5. It's the pirate class. And piracy is not a metaphor.

Pirates were financed, outfitted and protected by merchant families who built fortunes upon their illegal trade. The elites who rose to prominence in America concealed their criminal histories well. But they are no less privileged by generations of piracy, including the trade in slaves and opium.

A secret oath for a Master Mason ackowledged that Freemasons were "Brothers to pirates and corsairs."

This is their flag. I'm sure Jonathan Bush recognizes it.

[SOS]

6. Accounts at Bush's Riggs bank helped finance 9/11 hijackers

http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/11.26A.newswk.911.htm

[emad]

7. Accounts at Riggs Bank: just where are Junior's

blind trust portfolios held that Farish oversees?

If at Riggs, will PNC assume automatic control once sale goes through? And is anybody about to take PNV to the cleaners in a lawsuit?....

[Tight_rope]

9. I guess all the corruption involving Jonathan Bush isn't bringing in new

business. No tears here. Gone with the "Mores and the have mores"!

[donsu]

10. good riddance to bad rubbish --- however, these criminals will pop up

somewhere else in the service of the bushgang,if they haven't already.
watch and see

[phoebe]

12. some analysts are wondering why PNC bought Riggs..

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04202/348798.stm

snip

Analysts yesterday continued to criticize PNC Financial Services Group's deal to buy embattled Riggs Bank in Washington, D.C., saying PNC made a poor choice by picking up a troubled bank in a weak position in a highly competitive market.

snip

"PNC just bought a franchise in complete disarray in a market dominated by much more competent banks," said Arnie Danielson, a veteran banking consultant based in the D.C. region. "It's a recipe for disaster."

Hoefer & Arnett analyst Dick Bove echoed Danielson's observations. "I don't think that PNC has demonstrated the strength in the retail banking sector that other banks have demonstrated," he said, calling the deal "highly questionable."

snip

"I think that everyone will wait until PNC picks them up and then sue, because there will be some deep pockets at that point."


PNC's own brush with the law is mentioned in this article while many other newspapers appear to have conveniently forgotten all about it.

(No doubt Riggs Bank will eventually be bought by the Carlyle Group or some other Bush front company once it is out of the headlines.)