Rabobank Pleads Guilty to Obstruction Charges in U.S AML Settlement and Fined nearly $370 million

One of Netherlands largest banks must pay U.S. authorities nearly $370 million and plead guilty to obstruction charges for allowing its financial crime compliance program to flounder for more than a decade – and then lying to federal examiners about known gaps and high-risk practices.
 
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and U.S. Treasury’s Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) negotiated the $368.7 million forfeiture and settlement with Rabobank National Association for failures across the entire anti-money laundering (AML) program from 2009 to 2012, including risk ranking, monitoring and reporting on high-risk customers, including Mexican entities potentially tied to drug cartels.
 
“When Rabobank learned that substantial numbers of its customers’ transactions were indicative of international narcotics trafficking, organized crime, and money laundering activities, it chose to look the other way and to cover up deficiencies” in AML program, said Acting Assistant Attorney General John Cronan. “Worse still, Rabobank took steps to obstruct an examination by its regulator into those same deficiencies.
 
The Justice Department stated the bank lacked in several specific areas:
 

• Alerts, inquiries: That the domestic branches of Rabobank were properly processing alerts and responding to law enforcement subpoenas.
• Staffing, qualifications: That management reacted appropriately to address personnel and resource allocation issues.
• Audits, influence: That Rabobank’s internal audit was at all times independent, without other managers unduly influence the scope or outcome of the review.
• Training, results: That the bank’s AML training was properly designed and successfully met its goals.