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Wachovia bank executives have admitted that the banking giant laundered millions of dollars for Mexican drug lords between 2003 and 2008, prosecutors announced in Miami this afternoon. The bank has promised to pay $160 million in fines and penalties and to set up new safeguards within a year to prevent drug money from coming through the bank. If it fails in that effort, Wachovia could face criminal charges, says Jeffrey Sloman, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District. "Wachovia's blatant disregard for our banking laws gave international cocaine cartels a virtual carte blanche to finance their operations," Sloman said at a...

<p>Wachovia Bank, a part of Wells Fargo & Co., is in talks with the Justice Department to settle U.S. government allegations that a failure in bank controls enabled Mexican exchange houses to launder drug money...</p> <p>The U.S. attorney's office in Miami led the probe, begun about three years ago, focusing on the role the government alleges a Wachovia correspondent-bank unit played in processing illegal money transfers for the exchange houses...</p>

MIDDLETOWN, CT — A wounded U.S. Marine Corps reservist, who says that after being called up for duty in Iraq he returned to his workplace only to be demoted, is now suing his former employer under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act. Jay Belanger, of Middletown, was working as a financial advisor for Prudential Securities, earning about $100,000 from managing over $11 million spread over approximately 150 brokerage accounts, when his unit was called up for active duty, according to the suit filed last week in U.S. District Court. He served during the initial invasion of Iraq in...

Vanderbilt Student Group Protests Wachovia's Support of ACORN Vanderbilt University's chapter of Youth for Western Civilization will be protesting Wachovia Bank's support of ACORN today in front of Wachovia's West End location from 4:30 – 5:30pm.ACORN, or the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, has recently come under fire since conservative activists revealed the multiple instances of outrageous behavior.Most notably, videos surfaced of ACORN employees giving advice on how to receive tax breaks for housing underage, illegal immigrant El Salvadorian prostitutes.Since then, both houses of Congress have voted to defund ACORN and Bank of America has opted to "suspend...

A jury decided last June that Wachovia had violated his rights under the Uniformed Services Employment and Re-employment Rights Act, which requires employers to provide workers returning from service a salary, status and seniority similar to what they had before leaving. It was left to Judge Arterton to decide damages.

Wells Fargo has its named removed from golf tournamentAssociated Press Published: Thursday, March 5, 2009 CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- One by one, the three men in charge of Charlotte's PGA Tour event came to the podium Thursday and referred to the bank that's on the hook for roughly $3 million a year only as the "title sponsor." They then unveiled the new logo for the new name of the tournament, the Quail Hollow Championship. No mention of any bank. "I'm not sure that anybody's been in this position before," tournament director Kym Hougham said after the news conference. "The bank has...

In covering the hearing of the nine bank chief executives on Capitol Hill, it didn’t take long for me to see that Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf was having a hard time of it, valiant effort though he did make to defend his bank’s lending practices. Because to look inside Wells Fargo, you will find the worst of the mortgage lenders housed in this bank, Wachovia, which Wells Fargo bought last fall for $15.4 bn, and housed within Wachovia is Golden West Financial, which Wachovia bought for a stupefying $25 bn, Golden West, the purveyor of some of the worst...

Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC) laid off 300 Wachovia employees last month due to a human-resources process that evaluated eligibility of employees to work at the firm as part of the merger process. Wells Fargo agreed to acquire Wachovia last October, and the deal closed earlier this month. The combined entity has $1.4 trillion in assets, and the community-banking group is now in 39 states and the District of Columbia.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wachovia Corp's shareholders approved the bank's takeover by rival Wells Fargo & Co on Tuesday, bringing one of the largest mergers stemming from the financial crisis near to completion. Separately, regional bank PNC Financial Services Group Inc said its planned takeover of National City Corp was approved by shareholders of both banks and is expected to close by December 31.

In front of a ballroom full of N.C. bankers in January 2006, Wachovia chief executive Ken Thompson warned of the dangers of “toxic” home loans. A problem with so-called option adjustable-rate mortgages, he told the group, was that homeowners can end up owing more at the end of the month than the beginning, which can be a “tough situation” for customers and lenders. “I have literally been amazed at the terms offered by some mortgage lenders, thankfully not at Wachovia and thankfully not so much in North Carolina,” he said. Four months later in May 2006, Thompson took a $24...

Less than two months ago, Citigroup emerged from the wreckage of the financial crisis as one of the last titans left standing on Wall Street. Now, in a stunning turnabout, the banking giant has sunk to its knees after a series of blows that have driven its stock price to a mere $3.77 on Friday — and left it running short on time and options. In the decade since Citigroup was born from the merger of Citicorp and Travelers Group, it weathered many storms that threatened to pull it apart. But the current turmoil can be traced back to the...

THIS WILL CHANGE YOUR RETIREMENT For those among you who have more money than you will ever need, save your time and delete this email. For the rest of us who are still working with mortgages, children and grandchildren or retired living on a pension and or Social Security perhaps you will take a couple of minutes to read the proposed changes in the American tax system. Sharing this email with others can make a difference on November 4, 2008; for our citizens and our country. INTERESTING DATA JUST RECEIVED ON TAXES This is something you should be aware of...

UnCommon Crisis by: Bethany Stotts, October 20, 2008 At the beginning of this month, it was believed that over 1,000 universities could be facing crises with payroll, staffing, and other expenditures over the next year. Their common plight: investing large sections of capital in a short-term fund with the Connecticut non-profit, Commonfund. On September 29, Wachovia announced that it would resign as a trustee of Commonfund and limited colleges access to their funds to ten percent of each college’s contribution value. Fund availability would rapidly increase over the next week. As reported in the New York Times on October 1,...

(AP) Federal antitrust regulators on Friday cleared Wells Fargo's $11.7 billion acquisition of Wachovia Corp., capping a weeklong battle for the Charlotte, N.C.-based bank. The rapid approval comes a day after Citigroup Inc. walked away from its own efforts to buy Wachovia - which experienced a $5 billion run on deposits in late September after the failure of west coast rival Washington Mutual Inc., according to court documents filed Friday by Citigroup. Late Thursday, Citigroup broke off talks with Wells Fargo and federal regulators after the suitors failed to reach an agreement over how to split up the bank. San...

No story just a headline. Citigroup Files Lawsuit Against Wachovia, Wells Fargo Seeking More Than $60 Billion in Damages

Shares of Wachovia Corp. surged nearly 40% Thursday evening after Citigroup Inc. said it has ended negotiations to buy the bank. Wachovia (WB: 3.60, -1.46, -28.8%) shares were last up 36% at $4.87 following Citigroup's announcement that after several days of talks it has been unable to reach an agreement with Wells Fargo about the possible purchase of Wachovia. Last week, Wachovia said it reached a deal to be purchased by Wells Fargo, but Citigroup objected to the proposed merger, saying that it had exclusive rights to talks about a transaction. Citigroup said it will continue to seek compensatory and...

NBC is furiously erasing its tracks. Any attempts to upload the forbidden SNL bailout skit skewering George Soros and his left-wing subprime schemer friends Herbert and Marion Sandler will likely be squashed. So, I transcribed the whole comedy sketch for you and provided screenshots for the 7-minute video that has disappeared from NBC and Hulu. (Pat Dollard’s blog has posted the full clip on its server. Thanks to Ms. Underestimated for the .wmv file.) THE SCRUBBED SNL VIDEO FROM 10-4-08 ((it wouldn't work on Firefox for me, but did on Explorer))

Wells Wins Rounds In Fight For Wachovia Liz Moyer, 10.05.08, 11:24 PM ET The battle between Citigroup and Wells Fargo for Wachovia continued late into Sunday, with federal court appearances, a tussle in New York State court and ongoing negotiations between all parties in a merger dispute that now involves the Federal Reserve. Wachovia sued erstwhile suitor Citigroup in federal court in New York on Sunday, winning a hearing date for Tuesday in its attempt to back out of a deal in principle struck last Monday under which Citi, working with the FDIC, was to pay $2 billion to buy...

Wachovia, one of America's major banks, has seen its stock price plummet over the last few months and will be purchased either by Citibank for the proverbial song -- a few dollars a share for a stock that sold at more than $50 a share late last year -- or by Wells Fargo at a premium. What brought about the wreckage of Wachovia?

Citigroup announced late Saturday that it had persuaded a New York judge to temporarily block Wells Fargo from acquiring Wachovia, firing the first shot in what could be a prolonged legal battle. Citigroup has accused Wells Fargo of wrecking its plan to acquire Wachovia’s banking operations for $2.2 billion, or $1 a share, in a deal arranged by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Four days after that deal was struck, it fell apart when Wachovia agreed to Wells Fargo’s offer to pay seven times as much for the entire company. The underlying battle is over which company will emerge from...