Shasky Calvery has an established relationship with Cohen and the terrorism office through her role at the Justice Department’s asset forfeiture and money laundering office having worked closely in probing foreign banks suspected of violating U.S. Freis has not commented publically on his departure.Ī FinCEN spokesman was unable to make Shasky Calvery available for an interview. national security, were marginalized, the source said.įreis, Cohen and Cohen’s predecessor Stuart Levey, who joined Britain’s HSBC Holdings Plc in January as chief legal officer, all declined to comment. Other issues of importance to Treasury’s Terrorism and Financial Intelligence office, such as using FinCEN to help prevent foreign banks from aiding drug traffickers, terrorist groups and regimes that threaten U.S. The fight against mortgage fraud was one of Freis’ top priorities. Since Freis took over FinCEN in 2007, it levied less than $195 million in penalties against 21 people and financial institutions. He will remain in an undetermined r o le at Treasury, a source familiar with the situation said.Ĭonflicts over personality and policy between the two men in were the reasons for the firing, sources familiar with the issue said.įreis took seriously his statutory mandate to support law enforcement and looked for guidance on priorities not from Treasury, but from the Justice Department, a top consumer of the data FinCEN collects from financial institutions, a source familiar with his tenure said. Friday was Freis’ last as head of FinCEN. was dismissed by Cohen after he refused to resign in May. Most of the sources interviewed for this article would speak only on condition of anonymity.ĭeparting FinCEN Director James Freis Jr. That office is run by Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence David Cohen, her new boss who assumed his position last year. Shasky Calvery also must rebuild a strained rapport with the main Treasury Department, including its Terrorism and Financial Intelligence office. anti-money laundering law, makes the directorship a higher profile assignment than Shasky Calvery’s previous role as head of the Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section at the Justice Department. Senators Dianne Feinstein, Chuck Grassley and Sheldon Whitehouse complained publicly in a March 2011 letter to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner that FinCEN was slow in making rules for prepaid cards, amid concerns about the cards’ potential for abuse by drug traffickers.įinCEN’s obligation to enforce the Bank Secrecy Act, the primary U.S. “Treasury had an agenda to really go.where they were seeing money-laundering problems, but they couldn’t get FinCEN to focus on that,” a source aware of the situation said. Some said the bureau has focused too much on mortgage fraud and too little on international money laundering, terrorism and rogue regimes. regulators in cracking down on bank violations.Ĭritics, including some on Capitol Hill, have questioned FinCEN’s priorities and competence. Shasky Calvery, a former prosecutor experienced in dismantling international crime organizations and tracking down their money, will now face a set of different challenges as head of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network: stepping up the fight against money-laundering without unduly antagonizing banks, current and former government officials and banking industry sources said.įinCEN, a 300-person agency, has dragged its feet in issuing regulations, authorized in a 2010 law, aimed at cutting off Iran’s access to financial services. Treasury Department’s anti-money laundering bureau on Monday, with the task of reviving the beleaguered agency amid pressure over Iran sanctions and enforcement policies. LOUIS, Sept 21 (Thomson Reuters Accelus) - Former Justice Department official Jennifer Shasky Calvery takes over at the U.S. (Changes word “undermined” to “undetermined”, paragraph 10)
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