New York fines Chinese bank $215 mn for money laundering violations

New York’s state bank regulator on Friday fined the giant Agricultural Bank of China $215 million for violating anti-money laundering laws and obscuring financial transactions involving Russia and China.

The Department of Financial Services said the bank, the third-largest in the world, had also “silenced” a whistleblower who attempted to carry out internal investigations.

The powerful regulator said bank staff took deliberate steps to hide US dollar transactions passing through its New York branch that could have been tied to violations of trade sanctions and anti-money laundering laws.

The bank also deliberately ignored warnings from the agency to improve its internal compliance measures as the volume of international transactions increased beginning in 2013, DFS said in a statement.

“DFS will take swift and appropriate action when our investigation finds egregious conduct and intentional circumvention of a regulated bank’s compliance program,” Financial Services Superintendent Maria Vullo said in a statement.

In addition to paying the penalty, the bank agreed to take immediate steps to improve its legal compliance, including hiring an outside monitor.