Warren asks DOJ to investigate Bank of America over money laundering violations

Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) on Thursday urged the Department of Justice (DOJ) to launch a criminal investigation into Bank of America for its violations of anti-money laundering laws.

In a letter to Attorney General Todd Blanche, the Massachusetts Democrat called the Treasury Department’s recent $1.21 billion fine of Bank of America a “ slap on the wrist .” The penalty was the third largest in Treasury history.

“I ask the Department of Justice to conduct a full criminal investigation and, if the facts warrant, prosecute the bank and its executives for their failures to follow the law,” wrote Warren, the ranking member on the Senate Banking Committee.

The Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) fined the country’s second-largest bank $1.2 billion earlier this month for failing to “mitigate and report priority national security risks.”

The fine included a $750 million penalty by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), which called Bank of America’s anti-money laundering compliance program “ineffective.”

In her letter to Blanche, Warren said the violations by Bank of America, which the company acknowledged earlier this month, allowed “illicit actors to move billions through the financial system.”

The progressive senator asked Blanche to clarify by Nov. 12 whether the DOJ conducted a criminal probe of Bank of America and, if not, whether it plans to do so. She also asked the attorney general if his department will coordinate with FinCEN on ensuring Bank of America complies with the latter agency’s order .

The Hill has reached out to the DOJ for comment.

In announcing the fine, the Treasury said Bank of America “failed to timely report” more than $5 billion in suspicious transactions — roughly $1 billion of which had links to Chinese money laundering networks and southern border cartels.

Noting the OCC warned Bank of America in 2024 about its money-laundering compliance program, Warren called the company’s conduct “particularly egregious,” adding the federal government can legally pursue civil and criminal penalties for the violations.

“Civil fines have become the cost of doing business on Wall Street,” Warren added. “The type of penalties imposed by FinCEN and the OCC are not an adequate deterrent nor eliminate the profit incentives for repeated lawbreaking by large financial institutions.”