A Pacific Power and Light Co. affiliate that has been suing Barnett Banks Inc. upped the ante this week, charging that the bank laundered money for drug smugglers and an organized crime syndicate.
Barnett spokesman David Palombi said the filing of an amended complaint Monday in U.S. District Court in Portland, Ore., was an "act of desperation."
"It's simply a rehash of allegations that have already been thrown out because they're so outrageous," he said.
It was the second amended complaint from Pacific Harbor Capital Inc., a subsidiary of Portland-based Pacificorp. A motion to allow the amendments is pending.
Pacific Harbor is suing Barnett for more than $13 million, claiming the bank defrauded it in a real estate development deal.
In May, Pacific Harbor amended its complaint to include charges that Barnett had indirectly involved it in money laundering in that deal.
But the new filing paints a picture of wider criminality.
It alleges that a group of community leaders "extorted" its way into control of Barnett Bank of Lee County in Fort Myers and converted it into a "large-scale money-laundering operation for organized crime and Colombian drug smugglers."
A series of fraudulent land transactions facilitated the money laundering, the complaint alleges.
It claims that a bank director, a former bank chief executive officer, and a former lending officer worked in concert with others to give Barnett "an international reputation among the underworld as the place to go for criminals with large amounts of cash needing to be cleaned up."
The filing further alleges that some members of the community and the former director, Morton Goldberg, exploited gambling debts to pressure officials at Barnett Bank of Lee County to open the bank to money laundering. It also claims violence was threatened.
The complaint says the bank laundered money for a Kentucky organized crime gambling syndicate.
Pacific Harbor has also filed a suspicious-activity report with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's and has contacted the federal Drug Enforcement Agency.
Barnett has fended off similar allegations. In June, after a series of favorable court rulings, it filed a motion to dismiss Pacific Harbor's first amended complaint. That motion too is pending.
