Israeli Supervisor of Banks has sent warning letters to three former top executives at Bank Leumi (TASE: LUMI) former chairman Eitan Raff, former CEO Galia Maor and former head of the international and private banking division Zvi Itskovich, about the money laundering affair for customers in the US branch of the bank, report news1 site.
Yoav Yitzhak’s News1 has published that In the letters Supervisor of Banks David Zaken invites the three executives to respond to the draft of the harshly critical report on the matter of their role and responsibility in the money laundering for customers at the bank’s US branch. The letter also states that they may be especially harmed by the final report. Their response to the letters is expected later this week, and if necessary a meeting will be held for further clarifications.
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The affair concerns criticism following the investigation of the US authorities of criminal events that took place in Bank Leumi’s US branch between the years 2002 and 2010 – when the three executives were serving the bank.
Bank Leumi, Israel’s second largest bank, admitted late last year to helping its American customers evade income taxes, hide assets, and launder their money back into the United States. The bank agreed to pay $130 million in fines to New York regulators and another $270 million to the federal government, and assist in an ongoing probe of other Israeli banks.
ABC NEWS Reported on the case by Sam Antar, former CFO of Crazy Eddie:
“I know that the FBI and SEC have known about this for decades because I personally flagged it to them in 1989, when Crazy Eddie was busted for fraud and I was trying to avoid prison time. (Which I did.)
My family used Bank Leumi to help them evade taxes, hide assets, and launder money because of their exceptional client services and discretion.
From 1971 to 1984, I was intimately involved in my family’s scheme to underreport cash revenues and evade income taxes at Crazy Eddie when we were a private company. Bank Leumi sent its Israeli employees to New York to assist my family in opening secret numbered accounts in Israel, ferry their skimmed cash overseas, and later helped them launder that cash back into the United States when they needed access to those funds”…
Read his full story, click here
