Elizabeth Warren calls on DOJ to criminally investigate Bank of America over AML lapses

Senator Elizabeth Warren has asked the Department of Justice to open a criminal investigation into Bank of America. She believes the bank has repeatedly broken federal anti-money laundering statutes.

In a letter to Attorney General Todd Blanche, Warren stated that the recent financial penalty was insufficient. The Treasury Department fined the Charlotte, North Carolina-based lender $1.21 billion this month. That figure represents the third-largest penalty in Treasury history, yet Warren argued it failed to punish the institution adequately.

The fine consisted of two parts. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency levied $750 million, deeming the bank's compliance program ineffective. The remaining amount came from FinCEN, which cited the bank's failure to mitigate national security risks. Warren noted that the bank is the second-largest financial institution in the United States.

Treasury officials determined that Bank of America failed to report more than $5 billion in suspicious transactions in a timely manner. At least one-fifth of that total was linked to Chinese money laundering networks and cartels operating in Latin America.

Warren called for the prosecution of bank executives involved in the violations. She wrote that the current sanctions do not remove the economic incentive for large banks to break the law repeatedly. "I request that the Department of Justice conduct a thorough criminal investigation and, if the facts warrant it, prosecute the bank and its executives for their failure to comply with the law," she stated.

The senator gave Blanche a deadline of November 12 to clarify whether the Justice Department will initiate criminal proceedings. If the agency does not respond by that date, Warren said she would find a way to start the process herself. She serves as the top-ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee.