Treasury Just Hit Bank of America With More Than $1.21 Billion. That Is How You Police Money-Laundering Failures Tied to China and the Border
Bank of America admitted it willfully let more than $5 billion in suspicious activity go unreported or late, including money tied to Chinese laundering networks and the southwest border. In our view, Treasury's record penalties and tough follow-up show that national security applies to the biggest banks, too.
By Clara Hughes
ALTAS WORLD NEWS OPINION | By Clara Hughes, Chief Opinion Editor | October 14, 2026 | 6-min read When a corner store fails to check IDs, it loses its license. When the second-largest bank in America fails for years to flag money tied to Chinese laundering networks and cartel-linked trade along our southern border, what should happen? On Tuesday, the Treasury Department gave its answer: more than $1.21 billion in penalties against Bank of America, including the third-largest penalty in Treasury history and the largest ever imposed by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency [1]. In our view, that is exactly how national security gets enforced in the financial system: with real dollars, admitted facts and conditions that bite. Key Takeaways FinCEN assessed a $1.2 billion penalty; the OCC assessed $750 million, which FinCEN's fine credits; OFAC settled 475 apparent sanctions violations for $11,662,930 [1][2][3][4]. Bank of America admits it willfully violated the Bank Secrecy Act, in the civil sense of reckless disregard or willful blindness [2]. FinCEN found more than $5 billion in suspicious activity was missed or reported late, roughly $1 billion of it tied to national-security risks such as Chinese Money Laundering Networks and border trade-based laundering [2]. The bank must hire a third party for a lookback and submit to independent reviews focused on the border, cartels, Iran and Russia [1]. Here is why this