On February 25, 2016, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) announced a $4 million civil penalty against the Gibraltar Private Bank and Trust Company of Coral Gables, Florida, for willful violations of the Bank Secrecy Act. FinCEN found that Gibraltar failed to timely file at least 120 suspicious activity reports (SARs) related to $558 million worth of transactions between 2009 and 2013. According to FinCEN, the failure to file SARs may have prevented the detection of transactions related to a $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme orchestrated by attorney and Gibraltar bank investor Scott Rothstein. According to regulators, Gibraltar's SAR system returned an overwhelming number of false positives, making identification of true risks unmanageable. Gibraltar failed to act after it was first notified of its reporting deficiencies in 2010—the same year that Rothstein was convicted of the massive Ponzi scheme and sentenced to 50 years in federal prison. Gibraltar will pay $1.5 million to FinCEN and $2.5 million to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to settle penalties with both agencies. Learn more at Miami Herald.
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