Treasury hits Bank of America with $1.21 billion fines for anti-money laundering and sanctions breakdowns

The Treasury Department has imposed roughly $1.21 billion in penalties on Bank of America for longstanding failures to stop money laundering and for repeated U.S. sanctions violations. Fox Business reported the enforcement action against the nation’s second-largest bank after regulators documented years of weak monitoring, late filings, and ignored warnings.

The package combines a $1.2 billion Financial Crimes Enforcement Network penalty, which credits a $750 million civil penalty from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, plus a separate $11.6 million settlement with the Office of Foreign Assets Control. Regulators described the OCC fine as the largest in that agency’s history and the FinCEN assessment as its third-largest.

At the center of the case sit basic compliance duties every large bank must meet under the Bank Secrecy Act. Bank of America admitted, as part of the FinCEN settlement, that it willfully failed to maintain an adequate anti-money laundering program, conduct required due diligence on certain foreign bank accounts, and file suspicious activity reports on time.

Billions in unreported suspicious activity

Treasury stated the bank failed to report more than $5 billion in suspicious transactions in a timely manner. More than $1 billion of that activity involved national security risks. Those risks included Chinese money laundering networks, fraud, and potential trade-based money laundering tied to the southwest border.

The OCC found that the bank’s transaction monitoring system failed to properly watch trillions of dollars in transactions. That breakdown produced large numbers of late suspicious activity reports covering billions of dollars. Gaps remained wide enough that potential trade-based money laundering could pass undetected even after formal orders to fix the program.

Comptroller of the Currency Jonathan V. Gould criticized the bank for failing to fix the problems despite repeated warnings. OCC first flagged significant deficiencies in 2023. In December 2024 the agency issued a cease-and-desist order requiring a stronger anti-money laundering program. Regulators later found the bank still suffered widespread internal-control breakdowns.

Cases of large-scale financial crime keep surfacing across the system, from a former Swiss banking lobby chief convicted in a $101 million bribery and money laundering scheme to other high-dollar fraud rings that rely on weak controls to move stolen funds.

Sanctions lapses across multiple threat programs

OFAC’s $11.6 million settlement covered 475 apparent violations of U.S. sanctions programs. The programs targeted Iran, Russia, Belarus, Burma, and Somalia, along with narcotics trafficking and global terrorism.

Violations included processing payments through sanctioned banks, allowing certain sanctioned individuals to conduct transactions, and failing to promptly update federal sanctions watchlists. Those are not paperwork footnotes. They are the exact channels hostile regimes and criminal networks use to move money through the American financial system.

Financial crime cases continue to show how quickly dirty money can travel once banks lose control of monitoring. A naturalized citizen recently convicted of laundering $2.7 million stolen from elderly fraud victims is one more reminder that weak reporting leaves real people exposed.

Bank response and the hit to earnings

A Bank of America spokesperson acknowledged the violations in a statement shared with Fox Business. The bank said it has invested billions in technology and dedicated thousands of employees to fighting financial crime. It reported working with regulators to resolve the penalties, making substantial progress on the deficiencies, and committing to finish the required improvements. The bank also said it will keep assisting federal and local law enforcement on financial crime investigations.

Those commitments now include concrete requirements. The bank must work with an independent third party to review previously undetected suspicious transactions and undergo further reviews of its anti-money laundering controls. It faces additional sanctions-compliance duties covering employee training, testing, audits, and cooperation with federal regulators.

On the books, the penalties produce a $1.2 billion non-tax-deductible charge in third-quarter financial results. Bank of America said that charge reduces net income by about 17 cents per share. Shares of BAC last traded at 53.96, down 0.62, or 1.14 percent, on the day the numbers circulated.

Enforcement pressure on banking channels also appears in other corners of the market, including reports that illegal immigrants have been exiting U.S. banks as stronger enforcement reshapes lending and account access.

Why the failures matter beyond one bank

Anti-money laundering rules exist for a reason. When a major bank cannot monitor trillions in transactions or file timely reports on more than $5 billion in suspicious activity, criminal networks and foreign adversaries gain running room. The national-security slice of the late reports, Chinese money laundering networks, fraud, and border-linked trade-based schemes, shows how compliance failures reach far past balance-sheet footnotes.

The same pattern appears in other large frauds that eventually reach a courtroom. An Indian national found guilty in Austin over a $150 million scam against seniors and a Frisco clinic owner convicted in a $26 million TRICARE fraud both turned on the ability to move large sums before anyone stopped the flow. Banks sit at the center of that flow. When their systems lag, the public pays later.

Regulators gave Bank of America clear notice in 2023 and again with the December 2024 cease-and-desist order. The bank still posted continued breakdowns. Only after that record did the combined $1.21 billion package land. The settlement forces admissions, independent reviews, and ongoing oversight. Those steps are necessary. They should also be the floor, not the ceiling, for any institution that handles the volume Bank of America handles.

American taxpayers and lawful customers deserve a financial system that actually flags dirty money instead of discovering it years late. National security and border integrity both depend on it.