Not directly related to poker, but indirectly related to poker.

<SPAN lang=EN>Wachovia Bank reached a $160 million settlement with the Justice Department over allegations that a failure in bank controls enabled drug traffickers to launder drug money by transferring money from Mexican currency-exchange houses to the bank.</SPAN><SPAN lang=EN>Under a deferred-prosecution agreement with federal prosecutors in Miami, Wachovia, which is owned by Wells Fargo & Co., "admitted failure to identify, detect, and report suspicious transactions in third-party payment processor accounts," according to the Justice Department. Prosecutors said the bank processed ...
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Wachovia Bank NA, a unit of Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC), confirmed it will pay $160 million to settle a federal investigation into whether the bank&apos;s lax controls enabled Mexican exchange houses to launder drug money.

The U.S. attorney&apos;s office in Miami led the probe, begun about three years ago and focused on the role a Wachovia correspondent-bank unit played in processing illegal money transfers for the exchange houses. The exchange houses, known as casas de cambio, line the U.S.-Mexican border and serve as a hub in the global remittance business that allows U.S. immigrants to send money back to Latin America to help relatives.

Federal officials, however, also have identified the money-transfer business as a way for drug traffickers to move cash around.

The investigation looked at activity starting four years before Wells Fargo&apos;s acquisition of Wachovia Corp. at the end of 2008, a transaction that followed Wachovia&apos;s troubled expansion into mortgage lending and the ouster of Chief Executive G. Kennedy Thompson in June 2008.

On Wednesday, Wachovia said it entered a deferred-prosecution agreement with the Justice Department. The bank, acknowledging its compliance programs were inadequate, agreed to forfeit $110 million and adopt measures to improve controls. The company also agreed to pay a $50 million civil penalty to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency under a separate consent order. Wachovia had previously reserved money for a settlement, and those set-asides will fully cover the deal.
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