Federal Authorities Announce Major BSA/AML Action Related To Madoff Scheme

OCC Anti-Money Laundering FinCEN Bank Secrecy Act DOJ

On January 7, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, the OCC, and FinCEN announced the resolution of criminal and civil BSA/AML violations by a major financial institution in connection with the bank’s relationship with Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities and Madoff Securities’ Ponzi scheme. The bank entered into a deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) to resolve two felony violations of the Bank Secrecy Act: (i) that the bank failed to enact adequate policies, procedures, and controls to ensure that information about the bank’s clients obtained through other lines of business – or outside the United States – was shared with compliance and AML personnel; and (ii) that the bank violated the BSA by failing to file a Suspicious Activity Report on Madoff Securities in October 2008. According to the U.S. Attorney, pursuant to the DPA the bank (i) agreed to waive indictment and to the filing of a Criminal Information; (ii) acknowledged responsibility for its conduct by, among other things, stipulating to the accuracy of a detailed Statement of Facts; (iii) agreed to pay a $1.7 billion non-tax deductible penalty in the form of a civil forfeiture (the largest ever financial penalty imposed by the DOJ for BSA violations); and (iv) agreed to various cooperation obligations and to continue reforming its BSA/AML compliance programs and procedures. In a separate action, the OCC levied a $350 million civil money penalty to resolve parallel BSA/AML allegations included in a January 2013 cease and desist order. Finally, the bank consented to a FinCEN assessment pursuant to which it must pay an additional $461 million.