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| Tokyo Mitsubishi-UFJ has been fined for handling money transfers that violated US sanctions on Iran, Sudan and Myanmar (Credit: Reuters) |
North America correspondent Jane Cowan and staff
Japan's largest bank has been fined $250 million dollars for transferring money on behalf of countries blacklisted from doing business in the United States.
Japan's largest bank has been fined $250 million dollars for transferring money on behalf of countries blacklisted from doing business in the United States.
New York state hit Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi-UFJ with the fine for handling money transfers that violated sanctions on Iran, Sudan and Myanmar.
Regulators say employees at the Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi-UFJ were instructed to remove information from wire transfers that would have identified the transactions as violating US sanctions.
The illegal transfers totalled about $100 billion over a five-year period from 2002-2007.
In that period banking services and money transfers fell under US sanctions on the three countries.
The DFS said the bank employees "systematically" removed identifying information from nearly 28,000 illegal transactions
Benjamin Lawsky, the state superintendent of financial services, says they will continue to take a hard line with banks.
"Whenever and wherever we uncover serious wrongdoing, we will take strong enforcement action to protect our country from money laundering, terrorism, and other dangerous misdeeds," he said.
The bank has settled the case with New York State, agreeing to pay the fine.
The New York Governor Andrew Cuomo hailing it as a warning shot to Wall Street.
"Today’s agreement will send a clear message that we are working aggressively to restore and uphold accountability on Wall Street, and those who try to go around the law will be caught," he said.
The bank said in a statement that it had identified the violations itself in 2007, cooperated with the authorities, and "voluntarily and promptly ceased the practices".
Last year London-based Standard Chartered Bank was fined $667 million by federal and New York state authorities for permitting hundreds of billions of dollars to be laundered through its US branch by clients from Iran, Myanmar, Libya and Sudan, in violation of US sanctions.
Earlier this week, New York authorities fined a unit of accountancy Deloitte $10 million for its poor oversight in monitoring Standard Chartered's compliance with sanctions restrictions.
ABC/Wires
