For a year the US Justice Department has been investigating whether or not Citibank violated federal money-laundering statutes through its private banking relationship with Raul Salinas de Gortari. Now the big question is looming: will Citibank, the banking unit of Citicorp, be indicted or, at the very least, end up paying a big fine?
Neither Citibank nor the Justice Department's southern district of New York, which is handling the investigation for the government, is talking. But individuals close to Citibank believe the feds are "trying their damnedest and not coming up with anything". Meanwhile people familiar with the government's investigation say the case is slowly building against Citibank. If new evidence allegedly linking Salinas, the brother of former Mexican president Carlos Salinas de Gortari, to drug traffickers turns out to be credible, the government's resolve and its case will be bolstered further.
The stakes are high on both sides. Mary Jo White, the US attorney for the southern district of New York would not, according to one person familiar with the investigation, have "spent so much money, put so many people on the case and issued so many subpoenas" if there had not been a strong likelihood of an indictment.