| CommunityBank
of Texas on Money Laundering As Protested
Used Paid Letters Now Hit to FDIC
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon Story
BBC
- Guardian
UK - Honduras
- ESPN
FEDERAL COURT / S
Bronx, Feb 17 – Whether or not
the U.S. Community
Reinvestment Act will be again
enforced until the new
Administration and its
regulators remains an open
question. The same is the case
about money laundering
As
the fourth CRA challenge of
2022, Fair Finance Watch with
Inner City Press on the FOIA
filed comments with the
Federal Reserve against
CommunityBank of Texas, fresh
off a money laundering / Bank
Secrecy Act settlement, with a
disparate record: "This is a
timely first comment on, the
Applications of CBTX, Inc.,
Beaumont, Texas; to merge with
Allegiance Bancshares, Inc.,
and thereby indirectly acquire
Allegiance Bank, both of
Houston, Texas. As an initial
matter, this is a request that
the FRS immediately send by
email to Inner City Press all
non-exempt portions of the
applications / notices for
which the Applicants have
requested confidential
treatment. Fair Finance Watch
has been tracking both banks,
and has found their lending
patterns
troubling. In
Texas in 2020, CBTX's
CommunityBank made 65 mortgage
loans to whites with 54
denials. Meanwhile to African
Americans it made only THREE
loans, while denying fully ten
applications. A referring
should be made to the DOJ for
fair lending
violations.
In Texas in 2020, Alliance
Bank made 257 mortgage loans
to whites with 38 denials.
Meanwhile to African Americans
it made only SIX loans, while
denying fully seven
applications. Again, a
referring should be made to
the DOJ for fair lending
violations. Public
evidentiary hearings are
needed - especially because,
and specifically on,
CommunityBank's violations of
the Bank Secrecy Act:
"WASHINGTON—The Office of the
Comptroller of the Currency
(OCC) today announced a $1
million civil money penalty
against CommunityBank of
Texas, N.A., Beaumont, Texas,
for violations of the OCC’s
Bank Secrecy Act
regulations. The OCC
found that CommunityBank of
Texas failed to adopt and
implement a Bank Secrecy
Act/Anti-Money Laundering
system of internal controls to
assure ongoing compliance with
the Bank Secrecy Act and its
implementing regulations. Such
deficiencies resulted in
CommunityBank’s failure to
timely file complete
suspicious activity reports
for approximately $100 million
of suspicious activity.
The OCC’s civil money penalty
is separate from, but
coordinated with, the
settlement between
CommunityBank and the
Financial Crimes Enforcement
Network (FinCEN), which is
also being announced
today."
FFW and Inner City Press have
been deeply concerned about
the rush by the Federal
Reserve's to rubber-stamp
mergers by redliners, money
launderers and predatory
lenders. This has been killing
the Community Reinvestment Act
and we timely request public
hearings. The comment period
should be extended;
evidentiary hearings should be
held; and on the current
record, the application should
not be approved."
In
response? CBTX put in a
one-line letter of support
from a hospital, and another
bragging about other support
from "corporate sponsors such
as Valero, ExxonMobil, Entergy
and many
others." That was from
Nutrition & Services for
Seniors. Who else? And how
does this rebut money
laundering and redlining?
On
February 17 Fair Finance Watch
filed timely comments opposing
the application with the
self-described new FDIC. We'll
see. Watch this site.
As to the Fed,
which denies FOIA requests
after five months, here,
on August 25, this strange
response: "Dear Mr.
Lee,
This is to acknowledge receipt
of your email to the Office of
the Secretary for the Board of
Governors of the Federal
Reserve System (Board) dated
August 17, 2021, regarding the
proposal of South State
Corporation to merge with
Atlantic Capital Bancshares,
Inc., and thereby indirectly
acquire Atlantic Capital Bank,
NA. To date, South State
Corporation has not filed an
application with the Federal
Reserve System.
Currently, the public comment
period for the proposal will
end on September 20,
2021.
If
an application is filed within
the next three months from the
date your comment was sent,
your correspondence will be
made part of the record, and
the Board will evaluate your
comment. We will also
send a copy of the public
portions of the application as
soon as possible after the
application is
received.
Sincerely,
Jennifer Snow Senior
Examiner Supervision,
Regulation, and Credit
Federal Reserve Bank of
Atlanta
Integrity. Excellence.
Respect."
How can there be
a comment period with
expiration date, if there is
no application? Inner City
Press asked, and on August 26
is told:
"Our procedures
provide that advance notice in
the Federal Register may be
requested in advance of a
filing. The comment period end
date applies to the Federal
Register notice, which was
filed in advance of the
application being filed."
What
- the comment period running
to its conclusion, before any
application to comment on is
available? This seems far too
bank-friendly. How does it
relate to the administration's
Antitrust Memo? Watch this
site.
Inner City
Press (and Fair Finance Watch,
on the HMDA) will have more to
say about this. Watch this
site.
***
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