[USFK Forums] MaCau Bank Cuts Ties with N. Korea [Chosun]

[C. Y. Lee]

Uploaded by C. Y. Lee on Friday, February 17, 2006

Macau Bank Cuts Ties With N.Korea

Updated Feb.16, 2006 21:16 KST

The Macau-based Banco Delta Asia, which the U.S. has singled out as North Korea’s main money-laundering channel, has stopped all transactions with the North for good, lawyers for the bank said in a statement Thursday. The bank’s law firm Heller Ehrman LLP said BDA ended all business with the North and will not resume any relationship with North Korea or related entities.

The statement says BDA is introducing new measures to prevent money laundering and is cooperating with U.S. regulators, who in September said it was banning American banks from transacting business with it. Heller Ehrman said a three-member committee appointed by the Macau government has been running the bank since then.

BDA is reviewing its relationships with some of its customers with the help of accountants Ernst & Young, while consultants Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu are advising it on the anti-money laundering measures, the statement said.

The bank says the U.S. government has implemented no sanctions on it yet and Treasury investigators also have not finalized new rules. “There is as yet no law or regulation that prohibits firms from the U.S. or other nations from conducting transactions with us,” it insists. “In view of the improvements we have made, we are asking the U.S. to drop plans for the new rules” to restrict BDA’s dealings.

Washington says the bank also played a role in brokering the distribution of counterfeit U.S. dollars between Pyongyang and its customers. The Asian Wall Street Journal recently reported the U.S. dealt a severe blow to the secretive country when it announced the sanctions because it dried up its financial system and brought foreign trade virtually to an end.

The BDA statement reads like a bid by the bank to stay afloat as financial institutions and customers around the world are ending their relationships with it.


url: http://english.chosun.com/w21data/ht...602160025.html