Prosecutors fined the bank $15.8 million for its failure, on more than 600 occasions, to promptly submit reports that would have alerted criminal investigators to suspicious transactions.
The territory’s secrecy rules have long attracted criminals and secretive companies created there have featured in several ICIJ investigations on offshore finance.
New York’s financial regulator acknowledged that the financial system is “awash with trillions of dollars in dirty money,” and has called on banks to help fix it.
Richard Gaffey forged documents to help American clients evade taxes and worked with lawyers at the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, prosecutors said.
The FACTI panel cited ICIJ investigations for bringing financial crimes and tax justice to the world’s attention, but says reform has been slow to come when wrongdoing is exposed.
Thousands of financial institution employees flagging transactions that somehow don’t look right are the world’s first line of defense against money laundering.