The Washington Post reports today that Riggs Bank helped former Chilean Dictator Agusto Pinochet hide millions of dollars in assets from international prosecutors while he was under house arrest in Britain, according to a report by Senate investigators.

The report, drafted by minority Democrats also says the top federal bank examiner,R. Ashley Lee, in charge of supervising the District's largest bank kept details about Riggs's relationship with Pinochet out of the Riggs case file. This took place a few months before Lee retired from government and went to work for Riggs.

Last May, Riggs Bank agreed to pay $25 million to federal regulators for failing to report suspicious activity, the largest penalty ever assessed against a domestic bank in connection with money laundering. The fines were in conjunction with Riggs' dealings with the embassies of Saudi Arabia and Equatorial Guinea.

The FBI also probed Riggs Bank in connection with the bank account of bank account of Saudi Princess Haifa. Money from this Riggs account went toward subsidizing the families of two Saudi students..who then funneled it to two of the 9/11 hijackers.

Yup...there's our old friends the Saudis again.

And there's yet another twist to this story. It seems that the brother of former President Bush and the uncle of the current President Bush is a big shot with Riggs. Jonathan Bush is CEO and President of Riggs Investment Management Company.

A quick search at OpenSecrets.org of Riggs' officers campaign donations shows a heavy but not extraordinary giving to Republicans. Kev and I thought it was curious that this report was done by the Democrats and apparently not bipartisan.