Bank of America is involved in a big scandal Iran and Russia were also opened to the case

American authorities have imposed a fine of 1.2 billion dollars on Bank of America for its failure to fight money laundering. This bank has also settled the case related to the violation of sanctions against Iran and Russia by agreeing to pay a fine.

The U.S. Treasury Department announced on Tuesday that it has fined Bank of America $1.2 billion for failing to comply with anti-money laundering regulations.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant said in a statement: "When a bank of this magnitude fails to meet its anti-money laundering and sanctions compliance obligations, the consequences go far beyond the bank itself and expose the entire US financial system to significant risks from illegal financing."

"Today's actions send a clear message that even the largest financial institutions are not above the law," he added.

Bank of America, the second-largest bank in the United States, also agreed to pay $11.6 million with the department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the Treasury Department said. The agreement deals with alleged "potential violations of several sanctions programs, including those related to Iran, Russia, narcotics and global terrorism."

In a statement, the Treasury Department announced that the Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) imposed a $1.2 billion fine for Bank of America's "failure to mitigate and report priority national security risks, including China's money laundering networks and illicit financing along the southwest border."

The Treasury Department said the bank failed to timely report more than $5 billion in suspicious transactions; Transactions of which more than $1 billion were related to national security risks and other anti-financial crime priorities.

This fine includes a $750 million (€640 million) fine imposed on the bank by the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). This amount is the largest fine ever imposed by the federal bank watchdog.

Bank of America "admits that it knowingly violated the Bank Secrecy Act of 1970," the Treasury Department said. This law requires banks to help the government to identify and prevent money laundering.

"Financial crime compliance is a serious matter, and we have a responsibility to get it right," Bank of America said in a statement. "We have worked with regulatory agencies to agree on fines for violations that were previously proposed in the 2024 Office of Foreign Exchange and Financial Crimes Investigation Network Consent Order."

The bank added: "We have invested billions of dollars in technology and dedicated thousands of employees to fight financial crime. Our team has carried out most of the necessary measures to deal with the issues raised by the supervisory institutions and is committed to completing these measures."

The recent action is considered the third largest fine in the history of the US Treasury Department. In the first place, there is an agreement worth about 4 billion dollars that this ministry made in 2023 with Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange. That will be followed by a deal worth about $3 billion with Canada's TD Bank next year.

Both agreements were part of the Joe Biden administration's efforts to combat money laundering. The administration's broader actions were also aimed at improving regulatory compliance in the cryptocurrency industry.

In 2024, Binance founder Changpeng Zhao was sentenced to four months in prison after pleading guilty to failing to prevent money laundering on the platform. Prosecutors said criminals used the exchange to move money related to child sexual abuse, drug trafficking and terrorism.