Bank of America Pays $1.21 Billion for Money Laundering Violations
Bank of America will pay $1.21 billion to settle federal charges involving willful violations of anti-money laundering and sanctions laws.
The U.S. Department of the Treasury imposed $1.21 billion in penalties on Bank of America Corporation on Tuesday for violating anti-money laundering and sanctions laws. The settlement includes a $750 million civil penalty from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the largest in that agency's history, and an $11.6 million settlement with the Office of Foreign Assets Control for 475 suspected sanctions breaches involving Russia, Belarus, Iran, Burma, and Somalia.
Federal regulators found the bank willfully violated the Bank Secrecy Act by failing to report over $5 billion in suspicious transactions. This included $1 billion tied to national security risks, such as Chinese money laundering networks and trade-based laundering at the U.S. southwest border. A design flaw in the bank's sanctions-screening filter further hindered the prioritization of prohibited transactions, impacting counter-narcotics and Iran sanctions programs. The bank had previously failed to adhere to a December 2024 cease-and-desist order, leaving a backlog of nearly 200,000 cases by 2024.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stated the penalties send a message that large financial institutions are not above the law. As part of the settlement, the bank must hire a third party to identify unreported transactions and undergo independent reviews of its monitoring programs. The non-tax deductible charge reduced the bank's third-quarter profit to $6.9 billion, or 91 cents per share, a decrease of approximately 17 cents per share compared to previous estimates.
