Bank of America pays $16.6m for narcotics trafficking sanctions failings

Bank of America is to pay $16,562,700 to settle 213 apparent violations of US sanctions programmes against narcotics traffickers. In a notice released on 24 July 2014 [1] the Office of Foreign Assets Control says that between September 2005 and March 2009 the bank processed 208 transactions worth, in total, around $91,192 and did not adequately block accounts of six individuals on its Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons (SDN) List in apparent breach, variously, of the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Sanctions Regulations (FNKSR) and the Narcotics Trafficking Sanctions Regulations (NTSR). Also, from the end of October 2006 to early March 2009, OFAC found that the bank had not filed blocking notifications in timely fashion on accounts owned by four SDN-listed drugs traffickers, which would contravene the FNKSR and NTSR but also the Reporting, Procedures and Penalties Regulations (RPPR).