Mashreq Bank Hit With $100 Million N.Y. Fine Over Sudan Violations
- Dubai bank processed $4 billion of illicit payments, DFS says
- Lender cooperated with investigation, N.Y. bank regulator says
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Mashreqbank PSC, Dubai’s third-biggest bank, will pay $100 million to settle allegations that it violated U.S. sanctions by illegally processing more than $4 billion of payments tied to Sudan, a New York financial regulator said Tuesday.
The oldest privately owned lender in the United Arab Emirates processed the transactions from 2005 to 2014 and instructed employees to leave out key details in messages sent between banks that would have linked the transactions to Sudan, according to a consent order with the New York Department of Financial Services. By concealing those details, the transactions avoided detection from other banks’ compliance departments, which otherwise could have triggered alerts or asset freezes, DFS said.