The parent of Trump Taj Mahal, one of Atlantic City, New Jersey’s struggling casinos, has settled U.S. government charges that it violated federal laws designed to thwart money laundering, court filings show.
Trump Taj Mahal agreed to the assessment of a $10 million civil penalty by the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, according to a proposed consent order filed on Tuesday with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Delaware.
The penalty will take the form of a general unsecured claim in Trump Taj Mahal’s bankruptcy.
In exchange, Trump Taj Mahal admitted to have willfully violated reporting and record-keeping requirements under the federal Bank Secrecy Act from 2010 to 2012.
These violations included many that had been previously revealed by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service as far back as 2003.
The settlement requires court approval.
Any payout to the government may be less than $50,000, because unsecured creditors are expected to receive only a small fraction of sums owed, court papers show.
A lawyer for Trump Taj Mahal, whose parent Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc is also in Chapter 11, did not immediately respond on Wednesday to a request for comment.
The Bank Secrecy Act requires casinos to report suspicious transactions of $5,000 or larger.
Trump Taj Mahal failed to file about half of the required suspicious activity reports during periods covered by two recent IRS reviews, the consent order said.
Several Atlantic City casinos have closed or gone bankrupt in the last year, after competition from nearby states ended the city’s former dominance of gaming in the eastern United States.
Trump Entertainment’s bankruptcy reorganization calls for Trump Taj Mahal, which has 2,248 hotel rooms and 18 restaurants, to remain open, court papers show.
