How a Big U.S. Bank Laundered Billions from Mexico’s Murderous Drug Gangs

Martin Woods was set apart by his modus operandi. His speciality, he explains, was his application of a “know your client”, or KYC, policing strategy to identifying dirty money. “KYC is a fundamental approach to anti-money laundering, going after tax evasion or counter-terrorist financing. Who are your clients? Is the documentation right? Good, responsible banking involved always knowing your customer and it still does.” When he looked at Wachovia, the first thing Woods noticed was a deficiency in KYC information.