Warren Urges DOJ Criminal Probe of Bank of America Over AML Violations, $1.21B Penalties

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., asked the Justice Department on Thursday to criminally investigate Bank of America (BAC) over anti-money laundering and sanctions violations, calling $1.21 billion in recent penalties "a slap on the wrist." In a letter to Attorney General Todd Blanche, Warren urged a full criminal probe and prosecution of the bank and its executives "if the facts warrant." She requested a response by Nov. 12 and asked whether DOJ will coordinate with FinCEN on the bank's Oct. 13 consent order. Bank of America admitted to regulators that it "willfully" violated the Bank Secrecy Act and failed to report over $5 billion in suspicious activity from 2019 to 2023. FinCEN, the OCC and OFAC imposed the fines earlier this month—the OCC's largest ever and Treasury's third-largest. Regulators said the bank failed to properly monitor trillions of dollars in transactions, processing millions that violated sanctions programs and funded global terrorism. Warren noted the $1.21 billion penalty equals about 0.036% of the bank's $3.4 trillion in assets.