Lapas attēli
PDF
ePub

is not trying to exert influence over a bank official in connection with a transaction and the gratuity or favor is unsolicited. However, since we are dealing with a criminal statute subject to the interpretation of the Department of Justice, we recommend that in the event that you are contacted regarding this new law you advise the bank or bank holding company that it should consult with its counsel or the Department of Justice. In the same regard, we note that in the event that you discover, during an examination or inspection, deficiencies with respect to an institution's internal procedures relating to employee codes of conduct and ethics that could possibly be inconsistent with the new bribery law, you should recommend to the institution that it consult with counsel and seek to amend its internal ethics codes so that they are consistent with the Department of Justice's policy guidelines. Such amendments should probably include guidelines covering the total bar on soliciting or receiving anything of value as a quid pro quo or as a gratuity in connection with a transaction as well as a definition of what constitutes a gift or gratuity of "nominal value". Ethics codes should also include guidelines requiring employees to disclose to supervisors or management the receipt of anything of value and the establishment of a written report or log of all gifts or gratuities in any form that could be made available for supervisory review by the Reserve Bank at any time.

If any questions arise regarding these matters, please call Mr. Biern at (202) 452-2620, Ms. Meyers at (202) 452-2781 or Ms. Ellett at (202) 452-3528.

Attachments

WILLIAM TAYLOR

Director

[blocks in formation]

On August 16, 1985, the Division of Banking Supervision and Regulation forwarded copies of Form FR 2230, Criminal Referral Form, to all Federal Reserve Banks (see SR 85-22 (FIS)). The new Criminal Referral Form was developed by an interagency task force working under the direction of the Department of Justice. This task force continues to meet to address problems relating to the reporting of criminal activity on the Criminal Referral Form.

The purpose of this letter is to bring to your attention some developing interpretative and procedural matters relating to criminal referrals and the use of the new form. As further described below, some of these matters will have to be communicated to the financial institutions in your district.

De Minimus Violations and Credit Card Fraud

In the months since Form FR 2230 was distributed, several questions have arisen regarding (1) crimes where a

2

financial institution has no basis for identifying a possible suspect or the suspected crime involved some minimal amount and (2) credit card-related crimes. We asked the Department of Justice for clarifications in these areas, and it provided us with the following instructions:

(1) When a financial institution concludes that a crime has probably occurred involving less than $2,500 where the institution has no basis for identifying a possible suspect or group of suspects (as often occurs with check forgery or an unauthorized use of a credit card), then reporting the violation to the United States Attorney and federal law enforcement officials is optional. But reporting is mandatory if (a) the apparent crime involves $2,500 or more or (b) the institution has a reasonable basis for identifying the suspect or group of suspects, regardless of the dollar amount involved in the apparent crime.

(2) In cases involving the unauthorized use of a credit card or credit card number (18 U.S.C. 1029) or computer fraud (13 U.S.C. 1030), perpetuated without any apparent complicity of a bank employee or officer, the financial institution should send the referral form to the local office of the Secret Service in lieu of sending the referral to the FBI.

Filing Procedures

Board staff received a number of inquiries from Federal Reserve Banks regarding the proper procedures for filing the Criminal Referral Form. For your convenient reference, we note the following required procedures:

(1) When the referral is made by a Federal Reserve

Bank, copies of Form FR 2230 are sent to the Board of Governors,

the nearest office

3

of the FBI, and the nearest office of the

U.S. Attorney.

(2) When the referral is made directly by the financial institution, copies are sent to the Federal Reserve Bank in the district where the financial institution is located, the nearest office of the FBI, and the nearest office of the U.S. Attorney.

(3) When a Federal Reserve Bank receives a referral that was made by a financial institution, its staff retains a copy for the financial institution's file at the Federal Reserve Bank, and it should forward a copy of the referral to the Division of Banking Supervision and Regulation for Board

records.

(4) If a Federal Reserve Bank has knowledge that a financial institution has not filed a Criminal Referral Form with the FBI and the U.S. Attorney, the Federal Reserve Bank should itself make any necessary referral.

Each Federal Reserve Bank should also remind the financial institutions in its district that all criminal referrals should be made on Form FR 2230. While most financial

The term nearest office" refers to the office of the FBI and U.S. Attorney nearest the financial institution, not to the office nearest to a Federal Reserve Bank.

institutions are using the new form, a significant number of referrals are still being received that do not utilize the

new form.

Bank Robbery

Questions have been received regarding the inclusion of the bank robbery statute (18 U.S.C. 2113) on page 6 under the list of Criminal Statutes on Form FR 2230. In general, reports of crimes that fall under this statute should not be made on Form FR 2230 since they are covered by Regulation P of the Board of Governors. However, if an officer, director, employee, or other "insider" of a financial institution is thought to be a participant in the criminal activity, the financial institution should file a report on Form FR 2230.

Bank Secrecy Act Violations

The Division has received a number of inquiries regarding possible violations of the Bank Secrecy Act where a series of deposits are made at an institution in amounts near, but not in excess of, the $10,000 reporting requirement level (for example, where a series of deposits are received in amounts of $9,900), or where there is other suspicious activity involving large amounts of cash. In these cases, financial institutions should be advised that where they supect that this law is being violated, the institutions should make the appropriate referrals by filing Form FR 2230, which will, in

« iepriekšējāTurpināt »