Feds slap Zions over billions in illegal money transfers

By paul beebe

The Salt Lake Tribune
First published Feb 11 2011 04:30PM
Updated Mar 22, 2011 11:37PM

Two federal agencies have slapped Zions Bank with multimillion-dollar civil penalties for failing to monitor suspicious wire transfers of billions of dollars related to transactions that may have involved drug trafficking and other crimes.

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency on Friday said it imposed an $8 million penalty against Zions for shortcomings in its anti-money laundering controls — violations of the Bank Secrecy Act and the USA Patriot Act.

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network — a Treasury Department agency involved in fighting money laundering — also fined Salt Lake City-based Zions $8 million but said the government would be satisfied by a single payment of $8 million.

“The bank is supposed to file suspicious activity reports if they find suspicious activity, and the bank failed to file those on a timely basis,â€