16 April 2019 - 12:28

UniCredit Bank Agrees to Pay $1.3 bn over Violating US Sanctions

Italy's top bank UniCredit SpA and two subsidiaries have agreed to pay $1.3 billion to U.S. authorities to settle probes of violations of U.S. sanctions on Iran and other countries, U.S. authorities said.
News ID : 99011
یونی کردیت

In addition, UniCredit Bank AG, the bank's German unit, agreed to plead guilty to federal and New York state criminal charges for illegally moving hundreds of millions of dollars through the U.S. financial system on behalf of sanctioned entities, the U.S. Department of Justice and Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. said.



The resolution ends a six-year investigation that has hung over the bank and follows last week's $1.1 billion settlement by London-based Standard Chartered Plc with U.S. and British authorities over similar conduct, Reuters reported.



The German unit's guilty pleas are connected to violations of U.S. sanctions programs, including those related to IRISL, the state-owned Iranian shipping company sanctioned over weapons of mass destruction, authorities said.



Another unit, UniCredit Bank Austria AG , entered into non-prosecution agreements with federal and state authorities.



The German bank disguised transactions between 2002 and 2011 in part by stripping words like Sudan and Tehran from payment messages to New York financial institutions, the regulator said.



The settlements relate to apparent violations of sanctions targeting proliferators of weapons of mass destruction, global terrorism and Iran, Myanmar, Cuba, Libya, Sudan and Syria, the Treasury Department said.




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