United States District Court records(Case No. 99-cr-00914-SWK) show that she paid $20,000, her total outstanding fine, in January, 2007. What was the source of these funds ? The $ 685,000 mentioned above is restitution, which technically must be paid during her 5-year term of probation.

I am disturbed by her sentence. When money launderers are convicted in Federal Court in the United States, they invariably receive a sentence of imprisonment. The purpose of this extends beyond simple punishment for a crime; it serves as a powerful deterrent for others who might consider committing the same offence. I know that there exists a double standard; female defendants typically receive light sentences in white-collar federal cases, but this is absurd. Let the punishment fit the crime.

If prospective money launderers knew with any degree of certainly that they would only receive probation if caught and convicted, they would be lined up from Bogota to Miami.This simple fact flies in the face of Ms.
Edwards' sentence. No matter how well she assisted the US government in the BoNY case, some punishment should have been meted out. We call that justice in our system of laws. Besides, other than a mammoth fine, certain other bank officers, obviously guilty of compliance malpractice, were never indicted. Where are those people now, and are they working in your bank?

Whether the Bank of New York money laundering case was properly handled by law enforcement and regulators may not be known for some time, but this larger issue can wait for another day. Meanwhile, the ethics of assisting the Russian government to obtain a final judgment against an American bank, in what will surely be a a trial where the rule of law will be ignored, troubles me.