HONDURAS CLOSES, AND FORCES LIQUIDATION, OF SANCTIONED BANCO CONTINENTAL

The Government of Honduras has announced that Banco Continental, closed since it was listed as a Drug Kingpin, by the US Treasury Department, for engaging in drug money laundering, will undergo forced liquidation. When the United States froze the bank's US-based assets, its solvency dropped below the legal minimum, requiring that it be liquidated.

Account holders will be able to draw funds, up to the equivalent of USD$9000, by the country's banking regulator, the National Banking & Insurance Commission. Any bank client who had more than that on deposit reportedly will also be compensated at a later date.

The case has drawn international attention, due to the fact that it represents the first time that a financial institution was designated a SDNTK, or Specially Designated Narcotics Trafficking Kingpin, for engaging in drug money laundering. The denial of access to the US banking system, for any financial institution, is fatal, for the bank's clients are unable to have access to American banks, or its companies, or individuals. Naming a bank as a Drug Kingpin is public notice that the United States has evidence that the bank has a major role in the laundering of the proceeds of crime, specifically narcotics.