Indian-origin certified anti-money laundering specialist pleads guilty of failing to comply

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.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)