While they have not formally announced it, BTC-e recently stated to me that they are no longer dealing with US banks or customers.
This would explain the lower price of BTC on that exchange as USD would be relatively more scarce there.
I got scammed by BTC-E years ago and saw this coming!
They just took off with my funds in a "selective-scamming" manner and that was it... Bank said im SOL of course and of course I'm still SOL.