On February 15, 2018, the U.S. Department of Justice entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with a large U.S. financial institution, which includes a $528 million forfeiture, alleging that the institution's national bank subsidiary willfully failed to maintain an adequate anti-money laundering program in violation of U.S. laws and regulations. In a related action, the U.S. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System issued a cease-and-desist order against the institution, alleging that the institution lacked adequate risk management and compliance policies and procedures to ensure compliance with certain anti-money laundering requirements. The order requires the institution to submit to its respective Federal Reserve Bank a written plan to strengthen the board of directors' oversight of the institution's firm-wide anti-money laundering risk management and compliance program within 60 days of the order, to submit revised policies and procedures within 30 days of the order and that a subsidiary of the institution submit a written enhanced customer due diligence program within 60 days of the order. All submissions must be acceptable to the institution's Federal Reserve Bank. In addition, the order imposes a $15 million civil money penalty. The Federal Reserve Board press release accompanying the order further noted that the OCC and U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network had also announced monetary penalties against the institution's national bank subsidiary.
The full text of the DOJ deferred prosecution agreement is available at: https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/press-release/file/1035081/download and the full text of the Federal Reserve Board cease-and-desist order is available at: https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/pressreleases/files/enf20180215a1.pdf.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
