Large Korean bank to pay $35 mln fine for violating anti-money laundering law -NY state (updated)

Industrial Bank Of Korea

20/04/2020 16:21

(Adds details from settlement, comments)
    NEW YORK, April 20 (Reuters) - Industrial Bank of Korea
 024110.KS , one of South Korea's largest banks, will pay a $35
million fine to settle charges it violated New York laws
designed to thwart money laundering and other suspicious
transactions, a state regulator said on Monday.
    The Seoul-based bank also entered a consent order in which
it agreed to improve its customer due diligence and management
oversight and governance.
    Linda Lacewell, superintendent of New York's Department of
Financial Services, said the settlement resolved charges that
IBK violated New York's Bank Secrecy Act and anti-money
laundering laws.
    She said IBK and its New York branch suffered from deficient
internal controls from 2010 to 2019, which persisted even after
a 2016 agreement with the department and the Federal Reserve
Bank of New York to address its deficiencies.
    She said this contributed to IBK's failure in 2011 to stop a
$1 billion fraud where a client allegedly posing as a
small-business owner used fake contracts and invoices to convert
funds he received in Korean won from a restricted IBK account
into U.S. dollars, and then disbursed the money globally.
    A lawyer for IBK did not immediately respond to a request
for comment.
    The bank had about $242 billion of assets as of June 30,
2019, with about $180 million in its New York branch. It has
been licensed in the state since 1990.
    

 (Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York, Editing by Franklin
Paul and Steve Orlofsky)
 ((jon.stempel@thomsonreuters.com; +1 646 223 6317; Reuters
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