Federal regulators on Oct. 13 announced more than $1.21 billion in penalties against Bank of America for breaking anti-money laundering and sanctions laws, the third-largest penalty in Treasury Department history, according to the department.
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, the Treasury bureau that enforces the Bank Secrecy Act, assessed a $1.2 billion penalty. FinCEN said the bank failed to report, on time, more than $5 billion in suspicious transactions, and that over $1 billion of that activity involved national security and other priority risks, including transactions tied to Chinese money laundering networks, fraud and possible trade-based money laundering linked to the southwest border.
At the same time, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency imposed a $750 million civil penalty over what it called a deficient and ineffective anti-money laundering program, the largest penalty in the agency's history. Treasury described the actions together as totaling more than $1.21 billion. Separately, the Office of Foreign Assets Control reached an $11.6 million settlement with the bank over 475 apparent violations of sanctions programs covering Iran, Russia, narcotics and global terrorism, among others.
What the bank admitted
Under its resolution with FinCEN, Bank of America admitted that it willfully violated the Bank Secrecy Act. FinCEN said the bank leaned on law enforcement inquiries and requests from other banks to spot problem activity instead of its own automated controls, and let suspicious activity pile up for long periods before investigating it.
