Chris Prentice

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – The United Arab Emirates bank Mashreqbank PSC agreed to $100 million in fines to settle a U.S. government investigation into sanctions that prevent Sudanese banks from doing business.

According to U.S. Treasury Department and New York State Department of Financial Services, Mashreq sent over $4 billion of Sudan-related money through American financial institutions between February 2005 and February 2009. These payments violated U.S. Sanctions against Sudan. DFS reported that another $2.5million in prohibited payments was processed by the New York branch of Mashreq’s bank between 2009-2014.

DFS reported that employees were instructed by the bank to keep certain information from being shared between banks. This was done to conceal violations and to prevent alerts/frozen on the transactions.

Mashreq stated in an email statement that the bank had stopped its conduct “of their own volition” by committing “significant resources” towards improving compliance policies.

According to the Office of Foreign Assets Control, the Treasury Department said that the bank provided substantial cooperation throughout the entire investigation.

Separately, the Federal Reserve Board announced that it issued a cease & desist order against this bank due to insufficient procedures and policies in place to comply with U.S. Sanctions laws.

After Sudan had been designated as a state sponsor for terrorism in 1997, the United States implemented sanctions that prohibited financial institutions from doing business with Sudan and certain individuals or companies.

Mashreq was also willing to share information about the state and future sustainability of the bank’s compliance programs.