December 18, 2017
A former U.S. manager for Dutch banking giant Rabobank Groep says he helped hide possible criminal activity by clients and is assisting U.S. prosecutors in a long-running investigation of whether the lender was tied to laundering millions of dollars in Mexican drug money. The manager, George Martin, entered an agreement with the Justice Department that requires his cooperation with the probe of Rabobank’s U.S. retail operations as part of a deferred prosecution, according to court filings.
Martin, who worked as a compliance official in the bank’s California unit from 2007 until 2012, admitted to aiding a criminal scheme to mask possible money laundering by account holders. Some of Martin’s superiors at the bank directed the criminal conduct while others were at least aware of it, prosecutors alleged in court filings made public Friday in federal court in San Diego. The scheme ran from 2009 to at least his departure in April 2012, prosecutors said.
