LONDON—British bank Standard Chartered has agreed to pay $1.1 billion to settle allegations by authorities in the United States and Britain that it violated money-laundering laws and economic sanctions.
The authorities, including the Treasury and Department of Justice as well as New York State regulators and prosecutors, said Standard Chartered had for years processed hundreds of millions of dollars in transactions from countries barred from participating in the American financial system, including Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria, the New York Times reported.
Standard Chartered has extensive operations in Africa and Asia, including the Middle East.
Other Banks Fined
The settlement is the latest to produce a large penalty against a European bank caught processing illicit transactions for countries and criminal enterprises, the New York Times noted.
“In 2012, HSBC agreed to pay $1.9 billion and to submit to years of heightened scrutiny after the authorities found that the bank had helped Mexican drug cartels launder money. In 2014, the French bank BNP Paribas paid a record sum of nearly $9 billion and pleaded guilty for violating American sanctions against Sudan and other countries. And two years ago, Deutsche Bank was fined $630 million for helping Russian investors secretly move $10 billion through branches in London, Moscow and New York,” The New York Times stated.