Consider our minds blown, via Bloomberg:
- NEW YORK SETTLES PROBE OF STANDARD CHARTERED FOR $340 MLN
The life or death of STANCHART is settled - they live; and the $250 billion of 'laundering' transactions - sanctions/terrorism/drugs-related or not - are settled for a 0.14% transaction fee (that'll teach 'em!). In other words, Std Chartered's IRR for committing years of crime is 714%. Finally this is a whopping 1.9% of the bank's entire 2011 revenues, or in other words they had to hand over 7 days of revenue (assuming a 365 day work week). Of course there are other fines/penalties to come but it looks like someone got a little over-excited at the regulators or as we note, STANCHART had some bottom-drawer details no one wanted outed. And now, employees of US "regulators," "enforcers" and various other "crime fighting" organizations can look forward to submitting their resumes to the British banks all over again.
From AP:
New York's financial regulator says his agency has reached a $340 million settlement with Standard Chartered Bank over allegations it schemed with the Iranian government to launder $250 billion from 2001 to 2007.
New York Superintendent of Financial Services Benjamin Lawsky says the British bank will pay the civil penalty to the state. It also will install a monitor for at least two years who will evaluate the money-laundering risk controls of its New York branch and take corrective measures. State agency's examiners will be placed at the bank.
The bank had no immediate comment Tuesday.
In a statement released Monday night, Standard Chartered Bank said it "strongly rejects" and "contests" the New York regulators' portrayal of its transactions with Iranian banks.
But it is delighted at generating aa 714% IRR for year of what it neither admits nor denies may have been egregious criminal activity.
And so all is back to normal in the world of endless financial crime, where crime pays, but only after one bribes all the regulators to play.