The feds just slapped Bank of America with a $1.21 billion fine for failing to flag over $5 billion in suspicious transactions—including cash tied to Chinese money laundering and the cartel crisis at the southwest border—while the same regulatory state ignores the currency debasement crushing working Americans.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says a bank this size failing its obligations exposes the whole system to illicit finance risks. Fair enough. But where is the fine for the Federal Reserve when its policies devalue the dollar and drive the inflation pricing Main Street out of survival? The regulatory state shakes down a massive bank for compliance failures, but the real financial crime against the working class goes completely unaddressed.
The Treasury Department announced the third-largest fine in its history on Tuesday. Bank of America admitted it “willfully violated” the 1970 Bank Secrecy Act by failing to maintain a compliant anti-money laundering program, conduct required due diligence on foreign correspondent accounts, and file suspicious activity reports. Regulators found the bank failed to adequately investigate trillions of dollars in potentially suspicious transactions despite knowing about significant compliance deficiencies for years. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency first identified the problems in 2023 and issued a cease-and-desist order in December 2024, but the bank's internal controls continued to break down.
According to the Treasury, the bank “prioritized its revenues” and “effectively outsourced to third parties a substantial portion of its proactive detection and reporting obligations,” relying on law enforcement and other institutions to do its job instead of using its own internal controls. The missed transactions included more than $1 billion posing national security risks, specifically highlighting Chinese money laundering networks and trade-based laundering tied to the southwest border. A separate $11.6 million settlement with the Office of Foreign Assets Control covers apparent violations of sanctions programs involving Iran, Russia, narcotics, and global terrorism.
Bank of America talked a familiar game. “Financial crime compliance is serious, and we are responsible for getting it right,” a spokesperson said, adding the bank has “invested billions of dollars in technology and dedicated thousands of employees to combat financial crime.” The bank also assured the public it is “far along with and committed to completing the work required to address the issues raised by our regulators.” Wall Street handled the hit like a rounding error: BofA took a $1.2 billion non-tax-deductible charge, reducing net income by roughly 17 cents per share, and the stock dipped just over one percent.
This massive penalty follows the Biden administration’s previous record-shaking shakedowns of Binance ($4 billion) and TD Bank ($3 billion). The feds demand Bank of America police every dollar moving through its halls, and they should. But while Washington counts its $1.2 billion haul, who polices the central planners printing the money and debasing the currency in the first place?
