British bank Standard Chartered has hired two experts in the US to monitor criminal activities in its transactions, following various complaints of violations of law.
The two former prosecutors have been recruited in November and December, coinciding with a federal probe of Standard Chartered’s past compliance with sanctions laws, reported Reuters.
Former assistant director of the enforcement and investigations division of US audit agency Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) Vincent Heintz was appointed in late November to head the bank’s US financial crimes compliance investigations unit
In December, former federal prosecutor Evan Weitz has been hired as Heintz’s deputy, the news agency quoted the bank’s spokesman Chris Teo as saying.
Working from Standard Chartered’s New Jersey and Manhattan branches, the two former prosecutors will lead US investigators probing transactions flagged by frontline employees and software systems to determine if the activity is truly suspicious – possibly linked to criminal activity – and therefore must be reported to authorities, Reuters wrote.
As a former prosecutor with the New York County District Attorney’s Office, Heintz has experience in dealing with organized crime, money laundering and terrorism finance.
Weitz is an expert in the primary US anti-money laundering law, and Bank Secrecy Act.
Earlier this year, Standard Chartered formed the Board Financial Crime Risk Committee to have ‘board-level oversight of the Group’s financial crime compliance program’.
The board will also oversee the policies, procedures, systems, controls and assurance for anti-money laundering, sanctions compliance, and prevention of bribery, corruption and tax crime.
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