US Treasury Dept takes action against two foreign banks

US Treasury Department said Tuesday it has proposed to cut two foreign banks off from the US financial system. The public and other interested parties will have a chance to weigh in before final action is taken.

The two banks, the First Merchant Bank of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus and Infobank of Belarus, were suspected of money laundering and one of them was accused of helping Saddam Hussein use funds from the United Nations' oil-for-food program.

Infobank "laundered funds for the former Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein that were derived from schemes to circumvent the United Nations' oil-for-food program, including illegal surcharges and inflated contracts," the department said in a statement.

The department said that the First Merchant Bank "has been used as a conduit for the laundering of fraudulently obtained funds" and that individuals who own, control and operate the bank "have links with organized crime and apparently have used First Merchant Bank to launder criminal proceeds."

The proposal to cut the two banks off the US financial system would close corresponding accounts with US financial institutions.Foreign banks use such accounts to do business in the United States.

Source: Xinhua