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Failing to Report Suspicious Activity

By Douglas N. Greenburg
February 24, 2005

You get a call from the general counsel at a bank that has just received a grand jury subpoena. She's not worried, however, because the subpoena appears focused solely on a customer, Mr. Jones. He is not an employee or agent of the bank, just an unaffiliated investment manager who has been a customer for the past 5 years.

You review the subpoena and, indeed, it asks only for Jones' account records and related documents. Your preliminary investigation and discussions with the prosecutor running the investigation make clear that the government is targeting Jones for bilking his investors, and there's no reason to believe anyone at the bank had knowledge of his illicit dealings. What do you do? Send some junior associates to gather the responsive documents and forget about it? Tell the GC everything's under control and there should be no problem?

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