CHINA-US: TRADE AND BANKING
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Agricultural Bank of China, one of the country’s largest banks, agreed to pay a $215 million penalty Friday to resolve allegations by New York’s banking regulator that the lender violated anti-money-laundering laws. The New York Department of Financial Services accused the bank of deliberately disguising transactions routed through its New York office that could have hidden laundering of illicit funds or violations of U.S. sanctions laws. Officials at the bank obfuscated U.S.-dollar transactions and failed to update the bank’s compliance controls, the department said in a civil consent order filed Friday.
Representatives for the bank didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
The regulator stopped short of accusing the bank of outright money laundering, but said that compliance staff at the bank who discovered unusual transactions, some involving Russian, Chinese and Middle Eastern companies, were silenced when they tried to raise concerns. That stymieing caused the bank’s chief compliance officer to resign, according to the department.
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