Aug 12 - Senior executives at financially
troubled Riggs National -- the bank that earlier this year was
fined $25 million for a range of money-laundering violations
-- are eligible to receive over $7 million in severance pay if
they leave the company after its proposed sale to PNC Financial
Services Group is completed.
Additionally, the executives could receive another $2.2 million
cash from unvested stock options. The bank has been closing down
most of its international banking operations as a result of ongoing
government investigations into its transactions and ahead of the
$779 million buyout by PNC. The closures, the costs of
investigations and the fines left Riggs to post a $30 million net
loss in the first six months of 2004.
The $25 million fine is primarily in response to Riggs' failure
to report suspicious transactions in accounts controlled by Saudi
diplomats and officials of Equatorial Guinea. The bank is also under
investigation for another money laundering scheme, this time
involving Chile. A Senate panel in July found evidence that Riggs,
long-known as the favored banking institution of US presidents,
helped former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet hide millions of
dollars after he was arrested for human rights abuses committed
during his reign from 1973 to 1990.
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