Closing the Door on Closing Accounts: Ending the Damaging Impact of De-Banking

In 2015, five defendants pled guilty to multiple felony counts, including the rigging of interest rates, the manipulation of currency prices and the manipulation of the LIBOR rate.¹ The pleas for two of the defendants came in the wake of previous deals with the Department of Justice, signed in 2012, that allowed them to avoid prosecution.² Earlier this year, related to a separate incident, another defendant pled guilty to a charge of conspiracy to defraud the United States. Despite multiple warnings by the Treasury Department, they allegedly failed to adequately monitor suspicious transactions likely tied to the Mexican drug trade.³ In addition to the lack of jail time faced by any of these defendants, however, was the notable fact that none of the plea deals barred them from continuing to operate in the same commercial business arenas where they were purported to be repeatedly running afoul of the law. <a href="https://nacdl.medium.com/from-the-president-closing-the-door-on-closing-accounts-ending-the-damaging-impact-of-de-banking-af6a83f4ca84">Read More</a>