The Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) will pay $500 million to settle DOJ charges that a bank it acquired in 2007 helped clients evade U.S. sanctions on countries associated with terrorism.

RBS says when it acquired Dutch bank ABN Amro in 2007 it was aware of the institution's infringements and had money set aside for an expected settlement. Court papers accuse ABN Amro of willfully failing to establish effective anti-money laundering controls, which led to $3.2 billion in high-risk transactions. The documents outline how ABN Amro removed references to sanctioned countries from its payment information to avoid detection by filters at financial institutions.

Regulators fined ABN Amro $80 million in 2005 and ordered it to comply with anti-money laundering obligations, but the DOJ said new illicit transactions continued until 2007.

Read the full story at the Wall Street Journal:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703880304575236812724040550.html

The Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS) will pay $500 million to settle DOJ charges that a bank it acquired in 2007 helped clients evade U.S. sanctions on countries associated with terrorism.

RBS says when it acquired Dutch bank ABN Amro in 2007 it was aware of the institution's infringements and had money set aside for an expected settlement. Court papers accuse ABN Amro of willfully failing to establish effective anti-money laundering controls, which led to $3.2 billion in high-risk transactions. The documents outline how ABN Amro removed references to sanctioned countries from its payment information to avoid detection by filters at financial institutions.

Regulators fined ABN Amro $80 million in 2005 and ordered it to comply with anti-money laundering obligations, but the DOJ said new illicit transactions continued until 2007.

Read the full story at the Wall Street Journal:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703880304575236812724040550.html