WASHINGTON—The Monetary Crimes Enforcement Community (FinCEN) assessed a $15 million civil money penalty towards Shinhan Financial institution America (SHBA) for willful violations of the Financial institution Secrecy Act (BSA) and its implementing rules.
“SHBA willfully disregarded its obligations beneath the BSA to keep up an efficient anti-money laundering (AML) program and to establish and report suspicious transactions to FinCEN, regardless of being knowledgeable of its deficiencies way back to 2015,” mentioned FinCEN’s Director Andrea Gacki. “At this time’s motion ought to function a reminder to banks of all sizes that AML program deficiencies have to be promptly and successfully addressed, and that FinCEN takes severely repeated failures to remediate violations of the BSA.”
SHBA admitted to willfully violating the BSA from April 2016 by means of March 2021, by failing to implement and preserve an efficient AML program that was fairly designed to protect towards cash laundering and failing to well timed report a number of hundred transactions to FinCEN involving suspicious monetary exercise by its clients processed by, at, or by means of the financial institution. Consequently, tens of thousands and thousands of {dollars} in suspicious transactions weren’t reported to FinCEN in a well timed method, together with transactions related to tax evasion, public corruption, cash laundering, and different monetary crimes.
FinCEN appreciates the shut collaboration with its companions on the Federal Deposit Insurance coverage Company (FDIC) on this matter and thanks the New York State Division of Monetary Providers (NYDFS). The FDIC assessed a civil penalty of $5 million for associated violations and FinCEN will credit score that penalty. The NYDFS additionally assessed a civil penalty of $10 million as we speak for AML-related violations.
FinCEN’s Workplace of Enforcement is accountable for investigating severe violations of the BSA. For added data concerning the info and circumstances related to this enforcement motion, together with the particular BSA violations and their underlying causes, please see the Consent Order between FinCEN and SHBA.
