The bank was known for handling the personal financial affairs of many U.S. Presidents and many embassies in Washington, D.C. Twenty-three U.S. Presidents or their families banked at Riggs, including Martin Van Buren, John Tyler, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Richard Nixon.

Accounts were also held by Senators Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun and Daniel Webster, Confederate president Jefferson Davis, American Red Cross founder Clara Barton, suffragist Susan B. Anthony, and generals William Tecumseh Sherman and Douglas MacArthur.

[3] The bank was investigated for several money laundering scandals, including going to great lengths to allow former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet to hide his fortune after his accounts were subjected to asset freezing and for unknowingly allowing the hijackers involved in the September 11 attacks to transfer money due to lax controls at the bank.

[5] In 1845, Corcoran & Riggs financed Samuel Morse's invention of the telegraph and moved into a new headquarters at 1503–1505 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, directly across the street from the United States Department of the Treasury.

[5] In 1909, the president of the bank presented to the United States Congress an economic plan that resulted in the establishment of the Federal Reserve in 1913.

[5][12] In 1993, Joe Allbritton resigned as chief executive officer of the bank after it suffered during the savings and loan crisis.

Although the FBI and later the 9/11 Commission ultimately stated that the money was not intentionally being routed to fund terrorists, investigators were surprised at the lax safeguards at the bank.

According to British investigations on the Al-Yamamah arms deal, Bandar received over $1.5 billion in bribery from BAE Systems, laundered through Riggs Bank.

In 1998, Pinochet was arrested in the United Kingdom for possible extradition to Spain, and his accounts were subjected to asset freezing by court orders.

In 2004, Lee was placed on paid leave by the bank pending a United States Department of Justice investigation on whether he violated government ethics rules.

A ruling that he was mentally incompetent to stand trial was overturned when it was proven that the general had personally orchestrated some of the enormous transactions.

In 2004, Pinochet was ordered to stand trial for crimes against humanity, and additional claims of mental and physical incompetence were overruled.

[29][31] In May 2004, the bank was fined $25 million by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network for violations of money-laundering laws.

[32][33][34] A long-running Justice Department investigation was wrapped up quickly in February 2005 with Riggs pleading guilty and paying a $16 million fine for violations of the U.S. Bank Secrecy Act after a Wall Street Journal article reported December 31, 2004, that Riggs had extensive ties to the CIA, including that several bank officials held security clearances.

The abuses at Riggs led Congress to consider forming a single agency with greater authority to enforce money laundering and currency control laws.