Bank of America

New York Post Online Edition: news: "April 4, 2006 -- WASHINGTON - The Manhattan DA is pursuing a settlement with the Bank of America in a major money-laundering probe of more than $3 billion that flowed from Latin America through one of the bank's accounts to Mideast fanatics, sources said yesterday.

Sources familiar with the case - reported in yesterday's Post - revealed that DA Robert Morgenthau is close to reaching a settlement with the nation's second largest bank.

The bank is not being accused of complicity with money-launderers or terrorists, but is facing possible penalties for dealing with an unlicensed money transmitter from Uruguay, sources said.

A bank spokeswoman had no comment.

Morgenthau forced the shutdown of a New York account at the bank that investigators said was used to funnel $3 billion from a shadowy money transmitter called Lespan in Montevideo to several suspicious accounts in the Middle East, sources said.

Some of the Mideast accounts are suspected of being used by terrorist groups such as al Qaeda, Hamas and Hezbollah."