Washington, Feb 1 (PTI) A New York-based Indian-origin certified anti-money laundering specialist has pleaded guilty to failure to maintain an anti-money laundering programme in violation of the Bank Secrecy Act.
The anti-money laundering programme was part of a scheme to bring lucrative and high-risk international financial business to a small, unsophisticated credit union.
Between 2014 and 2016, Gyanendra Asre, 56, was a member of the supervisory board of the New York State Employees Federal Credit Union (NYSEFCU), a financial institution that was required to have an anti-money laundering programme, a release from the Justice Department said on Wednesday.
Through the NYSEFCU and other entities, Asre participated in a scheme that brought over USD 1 billion in high-risk transactions, including millions of dollars of bulk cash transactions from a foreign bank, to the NYSEFCU, the release said, quoting the court documents.
The Justice Department said, Asre was a certified anti-money laundering specialist, who was experienced in international banking and trained in anti-money laundering compliance and procedures.
“He represented to the NYSEFCU that he and his businesses would conduct appropriate anti-money laundering oversight as required by the Bank Secrecy Act,” it said.
However, contrary to his representations, Asre wilfully failed to implement and maintain an anti-money laundering programme at the NYSEFCU. “This failure caused the NYSEFCU to process the high-risk transactions without appropriate oversight and without ever filing a single Suspicious Activity Report, as required by law,” it added.
He is scheduled to be sentenced on May 3.