Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd. agreed to pay an additional $315 million to New York's Department of Financial Services for misleading regulators in an investigation of the bank's transactions with sanctioned countries including Iran and Sudan.
The penalty comes on top of the $250 million the bank paid in June 2013 under a previous agreement over sanctions violations, DFS said in a statement today.
The additional fine stems from department's claim that the bank pressured its outside consultant, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP's Regulatory Advisory Services unit, into "watering down" a report about transactions involving sanctioned countries, said DFS superintendent Benjamin Lawsky.
Lawsky also asked for the dismissal of the bank's anti- money laundering compliance officer, Tetsuro Anan, who allegedly persuaded PwC to soften its report. Anan has resigned from the bank, according to the DFS. Lauren Sambrotto, a New York-based spokeswoman for the bank, didn't immediately respond to a phone call and an e-mail seeking comment.
Lawsky said in a statement that regulators "must work aggressively to reform the cozy relationship between banks and consultants, which far too often has resulted in shoddy work that sweeps wrongdoing under the rug."
In August, Lawsky fined PwC's Regulatory Advisory Services unit $25 million for its role in the matter and ordered the PwC unit to implement a series of reforms.
