A local banker admitted in San Diego federal court Thursday that he caused Citibank to fail to report suspicious transactions and fail to maintain an effective anti-money laundering compliance program.

Raymundo Navarrette, 51, pleaded guilty to bank bribery and will be sentenced Nov. 13.

In his plea agreement, Navarrette admitted that he used his position within Citibank, as well as knowledge he gained as a result of his career in finance, to aid his clients in avoiding detection by Citibank’s AML compliance program.

Navarrette recruited and failed to report Citibank customers he knew to be engaged in various suspicious and high-risk activities, according to the plea agreement.

Prosecutors said that in exchange for cash, in-kind compensation, and other things of value exceeding $1,000, Navarrette agreed to undermine Citibank’s obligations as a domestic financial institution.

Navarrette counseled customers on the specifics of Citibank’s AML parameters, to include providing people with internal-use-only Citibank AML guidelines, prosecutors said.

Navarrette also devised schemes in which shell bank accounts in non-threatening business sectors would be established and maintained by his clients for the purpose of engaging in large volumes of cash transactions, without triggering Citibank’s AML reporting obligations, according to prosecutors.