It's one of the immoveable principles of counter-money laundering laws: no person may tell another of the existence of a current, pending or even possible investigation. It's called tipping-off and, in most countries, it is immaterial who the "tip" is given to. A banker in the USA "sold" information on the filing of a Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) to a customer who was the subject of the report.
Frank E. Mendoza, 45, of Victorville, California, was a "loss mitigation specialist" for Chase Bank when he became suspicious that a customer was committing mortgage fraud. He made a report to his superiors who subsequently filed an SAR with FinCEN.
Later, Mendoza contacted the borrower and told him that the suspicions had been raised and that the SAR had been filed. He offered, in return for USD25,000 to help the borrower in relation to both the internal inquiry and - materially - the pending FBI investigation.
The borrower immediately contacted the FBI and told them what Mendoza had done. The borrower delayed paying Mendoza by extensive negotiations, eventually settling on USD10,000 in cash. The FBI monitored two meetings in a car park during which the borrower handed over USD5,000 on each occasion. After the second meeting, Mendoza was arrested in possession of the second USD5,000 and, in his wallet, two USD100 notes marked as being part of the first payment.
Mendoza has been convicted of two offences: accepting a bribe and tipping off.
He will be sentenced on 25 May 2011. Under US Federal law he faces a maximum of 95 years in jail.
Source: bankinginsurancesecurities.com
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