Florida-Headquartered Private Bank Under Official Investigation - Media

Tom Burroughes

10 April 2015

Florida-based has been the subject of an investigation by the US Attorney’s Office and the US Department of Justice’s Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section, media reports said.

This publication was unable to reach the bank at the time of going to press.

The events at the Coral Gables-headquartered firm are happening almost six years after Scott Rothstein, one of the bank’s largest clients through his law firm and a minority shareholder, was caught for running a $1.4 billion Ponzi fraud. The bank later paid a multimillion-dollar settlement to the victims of the Ponzi scheme.

The disclosure of this investigation follows a consent order last fall from federal banking regulators that outlined steps the bank must take to regain compliance with BSA regulations. That order replaced a 2010 order from the now defunct Office of Thrift Supervision, according to the South Florida Business Journal.

The publication said the disclosure can be found in the bank’s audited annual report for 2014 and 2013, released to shareholders. It states that in February 2014, Gibraltar was notified that the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Department of Treasury were independently considering civil money penalties arising from the bank’s BSA and anti-money laundering compliance.

The news report said the disclosure was contained in a report issued by the bank to shareholders; this publication wasn’t able to locate that report on the bank’s website and is in contact with the bank for clarification.