Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ will have to shell out $315 million in penalties for allegedly misleading New York's top banking regulator about deals involving countries under U.S. economic sanctions like Sudan, Myanmar and Iran.
Back in 2013, the bank already paid a $250 million fine to the office of Benjamin M. Lawsky, New York's Superintendent of Financial Services.
Aside from the fine, Bank of Tokyo also suspended three of its employees who were suspected to have been involved in devaluing a report given to Lawsky about the deals with the sanctioned countries.
"We continue to believe that fines-while often necessary-are not sufficient to deter misconduct on Wall Street," Mr. Lawsky said in a news release. "We must also work to impose individual accountability, where appropriate, and clearly proven, on specific bank employees that engaged in wrongdoing."
Lawsky won large fines from some of the biggest banks on Wall Street over financial malpractice. He, along with his team also led a handful of settlements in the past year that put in $3.3 billion to New York's general fund, according to the state's November budget report.
Meanwhile, this is the second time his office has tagged the Bank of Tokyo. In the 2013 settlement, DFS alleged the bank routed $100 billion of payments that involved Iran, Sudan and Myanmar through its New York office.
Lawsky accused the bank of routing 28,000 deals which totalled $100 billion through its New York office, whereas the Treasury's settlement worked on 97 transfers worth $5.9 million.
The deal announced Tuesday came from an earlier settlement with a PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP unit in August, under which the accounting firm agreed to a pay $25 million and be suspended from consulting work for two years to settle allegations that the firm wrongfuly changed a report on Bank of Tokyo's compliance with anti-money-laundering laws.
"BTMU employees pressured PwC into watering down a supposedly objective report on the Bank's dealings with Iran and other sanctioned countries, thereby misleading regulators," Mr. Lawsky said. "It is clear that we-as a regulatory community-must work aggressively to reform the cozy relationship between banks and consultants."
