Ping Express faces 5 years probation for failing to prevent money laundering

Ping Express, a US-based money transfer company, has admitted that it failed to adequately guard against money laundering.

Chad Meacham, U.S. attorney for the northern district of Texas, made this known in a statement.

Meacham said the company, on July 6, pleaded guilty to failure to maintain an effective anti-money laundering program.

He quoted Christopher Miller, acting special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations Dallas, as saying, “Through our special agents and forensic accountants, we work endlessly to eradicate crimes involving money laundering and bulk cash smuggling.”

“Our investigative reach provides access to a wide range of financial networks allowing HSI to disrupt any criminal organisation attempting to exploit global trade.”

Ping Express charged U.S. customers a fee to remit money to beneficiaries in Nigeria and other African nations.

According to court documents, the company was licensed to transmit money but was not licensed to conduct currency exchange.

By law, Ping was required to report any suspicious transactions to regulators.

In plea papers, the company admitted that it failed to file a single report over a three-year period, despite a significant amount of suspicious customer activity.

The company outlined its anti-money laundering policy in a memo to state regulators, claiming it would cap first-time customer transactions at $499, cap daily transactions at $3,000, and cap monthly transactions at $4,500.

It also admitted that more than 1,500 customers violated these rules. In one instance, Ping allowed a customer to remit more than $80,000 in a single month — more than 17 times the purported limit.

According to the statement, Ping also said it conducted money transmission business in states in which it was not licensed to do so, including Nevada, New Jersey, Utah, West Virginia, and Connecticut.

The company claimed to have software that could detect and deter transmissions initiated in “unlicensed” states, but in reality, it admitted, the program didn’t function.

In its summaries to state regulators, Ping chose to include a column labelled “IP Location,” but only recorded states in which Ping was properly licensed: Texas, Maryland, Georgia, Washington, and Washington, DC.

In less than three years, the company transmitted more than $167 million overseas, including $160 million transmitted to Nigeria.

The company admitted that it failed to seek sufficient details about the sources or purposes of the funds involved in the transactions, or the customers initiating the transmissions.

The statement added that Anslem Oshionebo, Ping Express CEO, and Opeyemi Odeyale, chief operating officer, pleaded guilty to failure to maintain an effective anti-money laundering program.

Oshionebo and Odeyale were each sentenced to 27 months in federal prison.

In addition, Aleoghena Okhumale, Ping’s IT/ business development manager, pleaded guilty to knowingly transmitting illegally-derived funds.

Okhumale received a prison sentence of 42 months.

The company itself faces five years of probation and a fine of up to $500,000.

Sentencing for the company has been set for December 19.