{"id":15309,"date":"2014-03-03T02:09:22","date_gmt":"2014-03-03T01:09:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.w-t-w.org\/en\/?p=15309"},"modified":"2014-03-03T02:09:50","modified_gmt":"2014-03-03T01:09:50","slug":"citi-bank-under-sec-scrutiny-for-fraud-at-mexican-subsidiary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.w-t-w.org\/en\/citi-bank-under-sec-scrutiny-for-fraud-at-mexican-subsidiary\/","title":{"rendered":"Citi Bank Under SEC Scrutiny for Fraud at Mexican Subsidiary"},"content":{"rendered":"

Citi announced on Friday that it had discovered a fraud at Banamex, the wholly-owned Mexican subsidiary that has been one of the bank\u2019s best-performing divisions. Earnings for 2013 were reduced by $235m, Citi said.<\/p>\n

The bank said the fraud was tied to loans made to Oceanografia, a troubled Mexican oil services company. Banamex was lending to Oceanografia based on invoices for work it said were approved by Petr\u00f3leos Mexicanos, the state-owned company, which Citi said turned out to be falsified.<\/p>\n

In a forceful statement accompanying the earnings revision, chief executive Mike Corbat said the company would be \u201crelentless\u201d in seeking to recover funds lost in \u201cthis despicable crime\u201d.<\/p>\n

Citi believes the fraud had help from at least one person inside the bank. In his statement on Friday, Mr Corbat pledged punishment for \u201cany employee who enabled it, either through lax supervision, circumvention of our controls, or violating our code of conduct\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this point, we believe this is an isolated incident,\u201d Mr Corbat said. He added: \u201cAll will be held equally responsible and we will make sure that the punishment sends a crystal clear message about the consequences of such actions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Corbat said the bank was co-operating with Mexican law enforcement. But even if the bank was the victim of the crime, the bank could be questioned by US authorities over its controls and disclosures.<\/p>\n

Citi was rebuked by bank regulators in March last year for \u201cdeficiencies\u201d in anti-money laundering controls, including at a unit of Banamex.<\/p>\n

\"Banamax<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Citi announced on Friday that it had discovered a fraud at Banamex, the wholly-owned Mexican subsidiary that has been one of the bank\u2019s best-performing divisions. Earnings for 2013 were reduced by $235m, Citi said. The bank said the fraud was … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15309","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-corruption","category-finance"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t