South Korean Bank Fined $86 Million for Processing Transactions for Sanctioned Parties

A South Korean bank will pay $86 million after admitting violations of the Bank Secrecy Act, which included processing transactions for sanctioned parties and violations of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, the Justice Department said April 20. The Industrial Bank of Korea did not maintain an adequate anti-money laundering program and processed more than $1 billion worth of transactions for sanctioned Iranian entities, the Justice Department said. This was partly due to the bank’s lack of an automated screening program and its poorly trained compliance staff, which fell “months behind” their manual review of transactions. Despite self-disclosing some violations, the bank failed to inform the Treasury Department of at least $990 million worth of illegal transactions, the Justice Department said.