The US Treasury Department has imposed more than $1.21 billion in penalties on Bank of America for violations of anti-money laundering and sanctions laws, Yeni Şafak reported. According to LINE Today, the Treasury disclosed the penalty on 13 October.
The Treasury cited failures to report over $5 billion in suspicious transactions, including risks tied to Chinese money laundering networks. LINE Today reported that the penalty is the third-largest in the department's enforcement history. It also reported that Bank of America admitted willfully violating the Bank Secrecy Act.
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) fined the bank $750 million, the largest penalty in the agency's history, according to LINE Today. That sum is part of the roughly $1.2 billion FinCEN penalty and is not added on top, the outlet said. The bank can credit what it pays the OCC against the FinCEN penalty.
Separately, the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control reached a settlement under which Bank of America pays $11.66 million to resolve 475 apparent sanctions violations, LINE Today reported. The bank must also use an independent third party to carry out a lookback review to find and report suspicious activity its systems previously missed.
A bank spokesperson said the bank takes financial crime compliance seriously and is responsible for getting it right, according to LINE Today.
The OCC said the bank's compliance system remained deficient and ineffective even though it had been ordered to stop and correct the violating conduct since 2024, LINE Today reported.
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