WASHINGTON — Sen. Elizabeth Warren is urging the Justice Department to investigate whether Bank of America and its executives should face criminal charges over anti-money-laundering violations that resulted in more than $1.2 billion in federal penalties, CNBC reported.
Warren, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, called the Oct. 13 enforcement actions a “slap on the wrist” in a letter to Attorney General Todd Blanche first shared with CNBC. The Massachusetts senator asked the department to disclose by Nov. 12 whether it has investigated the conduct and, if not, whether it plans to do so.
‘Just the Cost of Doing Business’
“Civil fines have become the cost of doing business on Wall Street,” Warren wrote, according to CNBC. She said federal law allows criminal penalties for willful violations of the Bank Secrecy Act and argued that the bank’s failures allowed illicit actors to move billions of dollars through the U.S. financial system.
The Treasury Department announced penalties totaling more than $1.21 billion related to anti-money-laundering and sanctions violations. The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network imposed a $1.2 billion penalty, while the Office of Foreign Assets Control reached an $11.6 million settlement over apparent sanctions violations.
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency also assessed a $750 million civil penalty, the largest in the agency’s history. That amount was credited toward FinCEN’s penalty rather than added to the total.
Admitted to ‘Willfully’ Breaking Law
According to FinCEN, Bank of America admitted willfully violating the Bank Secrecy Act. Treasury said the bank failed to file timely suspicious activity reports involving more than $5 billion in transactions, including more than $1 billion associated with national security and other priority risks. Those included activity consistent with Chinese money laundering networks and transactions connected to the southwest border.
The bank also remains under a December 2024 cease-and-desist order requiring improvements to its anti-money-laundering program. The OCC said significant deficiencies persisted and that the bank continued to fail to escalate potentially suspicious activity for investigation more than a year after the order.
Other Criminal Charges
The regulatory settlements did not include criminal charges against the bank or its executives, CNBC reported. Bank of America said after the enforcement announcements that it had invested billions of dollars in compliance and was far along in addressing the problems.
CNBC reported that neither the bank nor the Justice Department had responded to its requests for comment on Warren’s letter by publication time.
Bank of America recorded a $1.2 billion settlement charge in its third-quarter results, which included net income of $6.9 billion, or 91 cents per diluted share.
