Sen. Warren calls on DOJ to open criminal probe of Bank of America

Free daily briefing on global business news.

Global business news for a smarter world

The senator says $1.2 billion in civil penalties are insufficient and wants DOJ to say by Nov. 12 whether it will investigate

Getty Images / Bloomberg

Sen. Elizabeth Warren has urged the Justice Department to launch a criminal probe of Bank of America $BAC and its executives, according to CNBC. The Massachusetts Democrat is the ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee.

In a letter first shared with CNBC, Warren dismissed the penalties of more than $1.2 billion that the bank received on Oct. 13 as a "slap on the wrist," according to CNBC. She asked Attorney General Todd Blanche to assess whether prosecution is justified.

Warren set a Nov. 12 deadline for the Justice Department to disclose whether it has already looked into the conduct and, if it hasn't, whether it intends to, according to CNBC.

"Civil fines have become the cost of doing business on Wall Street," Warren wrote, citing federal law that permits criminal penalties alongside civil ones when Bank Secrecy Act violations are willful, according to CNBC. "The documented violations by Bank of America allowed illicit actors to move billions through the U.S. financial system," she wrote.

The Treasury Department announced enforcement actions totaling more than $1.21 billion against the bank for violations of anti-money-laundering and sanctions laws. The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network assessed a $1.2 billion penalty. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency assessed a $750 million civil money penalty, the largest in the agency's history, which FinCEN's penalty credits. The Office of Foreign Assets Control announced an $11.6 million settlement over apparent sanctions violations.

In its resolution with FinCEN, Bank of America admitted that it willfully violated the Bank Secrecy Act, according to FinCEN. Treasury said the bank did not file timely reports on suspicious transactions that totaled over $5 billion. Over $1 billion of that total touched on national security and other priority risks, among them patterns consistent with Chinese money laundering networks and dealings closely connected to the southwest border.

The bank is also subject to a December 2024 cease-and-desist order requiring it to fix its anti-money-laundering program. The OCC said the program continues to have significant breakdowns, and that more than a year after the order the bank still failed to escalate potentially suspicious activity to investigators.

The regulatory actions stopped short of criminal charges for the bank itself or any of its leadership, according to CNBC. Following the announcements, the bank stated that billions of dollars had gone into its compliance efforts and that it was "far along" on fixing the problems, according to CNBC. CNBC's requests for comment on Warren's letter had not drawn a reply from Bank of America or the Justice Department as of publication.

Bank of America absorbed a $1.2 billion settlement charge in its third-quarter results, which showed net income of $6.9 billion, or 91 cents per diluted share.

Join 500,000+ readers who start their day with Quartz.

By subscribing, you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.