Robert Allbritton to Step Down as Riggs Chairman and CEO - Wash. Post

[Career Prole]

Robert L. Allbritton is expected to submit his resignation as chief executive and chairman of Riggs National Corp. today, ending 24 years of Allbritton family executive control of the Washington banking company, according to sources familiar with his plans.

Allbritton is the 37-year-old son and only child of Joe L. Allbritton, who gained control of the company and its Riggs Bank subsidiary in 1981. Though the family still controls nearly 40 percent of the outstanding stock, no family members will remain on the board or in the executive suite. Joe, who was chief executive until 2001, and his wife, Barbara, resigned as directors last April, as a money-laundering scandal engulfed the company.

Sources familiar with the situation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because not all the company's directors have been notified, said the decision to resign was Robert's. They said the move came at this time because most of the company's legal entanglements stemming from its anti-money laundering failures have been resolved and because of Riggs's impending merger into PNC Financial Services Group Inc.

Riggs Bank pled guilty in January to one felony count of failing to prevent possible money laundering by former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet and officials of the West African oil state of Equatorial Guinea. Riggs paid a $16 million fine in that action, on top of an earlier $25 million regulatory fine...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A14516-2005Mar7?language=printer

Looking to spend more time with the family, I guess. Do a little fishin', a little whittlin', catch up on those "honey-do's" and what-not.

[seemslikeadream]

1. Hijacked bank

Questions also remain regarding the web of money transfers from Princess Haifa, Prince Bandar and the daughter of late King Faisal, some of which reached Nawaf Alhazmi and fellow terrorist Khalid Almihdar.Princess Haifa's bank account--the source of the funds which ultimately supported the alleged hijackers--was with Riggs Bank where Jonathan J. Bush, the brother of former President George H. W. Bush and uncle of President George W. Bush, is CEO, President and Director of Riggs' investment management subsidiary.

snip

After Al Bayoumi fled the U.S. to England in July, 2001--two months before the attacks, Princess Haifa's Riggs Bank checks were then sent to Osama Basnan, who with his wife Majeda Dweikat, were both later to be found in the U.S. illegally as a result of poor or suspicious State Department visa supervision.

Former FBI linguist Sibel Edmonds said she found evidence of espionage in both the State Department and the FBI in pre-9/11 translations of intelligence intercepts--which also warned about planes used as weapons well before the attacks.A federal law enforcement source said Basnan was a known "al-Qaeda sympathizer" who "celebrated the heroes of September 11" at a party after the attacks and openly talked about "what a wonderful, glorious day it had been," according to Newsweek.

Al Bayoumi and Basnan both befriended Alhazmi and fellow Saudi hijacker Khalid Almihdar after they arrived in San Diego, according to the sources; and the Riggs checks from Prince Bandar's wife helped the terroists pay rent and living expences in the months just prior to the attacks, according to reports. Newsweek said Al Bayoumi helped them obtain social security cards and helped them arrange for flying lessons in Florida--indicating dramatic evidence of the state of congressional internal security oversight.

Basnan was convicted of visa fraud and deported to Saudi Arabia on November 17, 2002. His wife Majida Ibrahim--who had also laundered checks from Riggs Bank--was deported the same day to her native Jordan for visa violations. (Washington Post, 9-24, 2002) Reasons were not given why the White House allowed the high profile suspects to leave the country on charges much less important than being implicated as an accessory to mass murder.

more

http://tomflocco.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=53

[Ilsa]

2. Boeing, now this guy. Wouldn't it be a hoot if Martha Stewart took over

for ALL of them? ;)

[Moderator]

3. kick to combine

[emad]

4. Chief of Riggs Bank Resigns, Citing Its Pending Merger With PNC

NYTimes
By JENNY ANDERSON and ERIC DASH

Published: March 8, 2005

Robert Allbritton, the chairman and chief executive of Riggs National Corporation, abruptly resigned last night.

Mr. Allbritton, 37, said he was leaving because of the bank's pending $652 million merger with PNC Financial Services Group. As the bank's executive committees have taken a more active role since December, Mr. Allbritton has seen his responsibilities vanish. According to an individual close to the bank, he made the decision to leave after conversations with some committee members over the last few days.

While Mr. Allbritton's departure was an almost foregone conclusion with Riggs expected to complete its merger with PNC in about eight weeks, the decision was seen as symbolic of the fading influence of the Allbritton family in the bank's operations. "The symbolism is that really the family is divorced from the operations of the company," a person close to the bank said.

The resignation came days after Mr. Allbritton and his father, also a former Riggs chief executive, agreed to pay $1 million of a $9 million fund created for victims of Gen. Augusto Pinochet, the former Chilean dictator, who is accused of hiding money at Riggs.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/08/business/08riggs.html

[DoYouEverWonder]

5. Seems a lot of the big guys are bailing out lately

Time to take the money and run I suppose.