Warren asks DOJ to open criminal probe of Bank of America over money-laundering lapses

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, is asking the Justice Department to open a criminal investigation into Bank of America and its executives. She says the bank admitted it willfully violated federal anti-money-laundering laws. Her letter was first shared with CNBC on Thursday ¹.

Warren is the ranking member of the Senate banking committee. She called the more than $1.2 billion in penalties imposed on Oct. 13 a "slap on the wrist." She urged Attorney General Todd Blanche to decide whether criminal charges are warranted ¹.

What the bank admitted

In a settlement with the Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, Bank of America admitted it willfully violated the Bank Secrecy Act. That law requires banks to run anti-money-laundering programs and report suspicious activity. The bank admitted it failed to maintain an adequate program and to properly report suspicious transactions ¹.

Regulators said the bank failed to report more than $5 billion in suspicious transactions in a timely way. More than $1 billion of that involved national-security and other high-priority risks. Those included activity indicative of Chinese money-laundering networks and transactions tied to the U.S. southwest border ¹.

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Treasury said the bank at times "prioritized its revenues" over compliance. It also said the bank leaned heavily on law enforcement inquiries and referrals from other financial institutions, rather than its own systems, to spot suspicious activity ¹.

Fines, but no criminal charges

The penalties included a record $750 million fine from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which regulates national banks. The actions did not include criminal charges against the bank or its executives ¹. The comptroller's office says FinCEN is assessing a $1.2 billion fine that credits the OCC's $750 million penalty ².

The comptroller's office said the bank's transaction-monitoring system failed to properly monitor trillions of dollars in transactions. It also cited many late suspicious-activity reports, some showing signs of money laundering ².

Comptroller Jonathan Gould said the bank's response to its problems was "unacceptable." That is the same regulator that imposed the record fine ².

This is not the bank's first warning. It has operated under a December 2024 cease-and-desist order, a regulator's directive to fix problems, over weaknesses in its anti-money-laundering controls ¹². The comptroller's office says the bank has not completed many required steps and still has significant breakdowns ². Regulators said this month it had not made enough progress on some of those problems ¹.

Civil fines have become the cost of doing business on Wall Street,

Warren pointed to federal law that allows criminal as well as civil penalties for willful violations of the Bank Secrecy Act ¹. She asked the Justice Department to say by Nov. 12 whether it has already investigated the conduct. If it has not, she asked whether it plans to ¹.

What the bank and DOJ say

Bank of America and the Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment ¹. After the penalties were announced, the bank said it had invested billions of dollars in compliance and was "far along" in addressing the problems ¹.

The question for the department is whether an admission of willful violations should end with fines alone. Warren's deadline gives the public a date by which to expect an answer.

The Record

1. Dec 1, 2024Bank of America came under a cease-and-desist order over weaknesses in its anti-money-laundering controls ².
2. Oct 13, 2026Treasury and the OCC announced more than $1.2 billion in penalties, including a record $750 million OCC fine; the bank admitted willful Bank Secrecy Act violations ¹².
3. Oct 29, 2026Sen. Elizabeth Warren asked the Justice Department to open a criminal probe and set a Nov. 12 deadline for a reply ¹.

Sources

1. CNBC, “Warren urges DOJ criminal probe of Bank of America over anti-money-laundering violations” (2026-10-29). cnbc.com/2026/10/29/warren-bank-of-america-criminal-probe.ht
2. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, “OCC News Release 2026-89: OCC imposes $750 million penalty against Bank of America for deficient BSA/AML compliance” (2026-10-13). occ.gov/news-issuances/news-releases/2026/nr-occ-2026-89.htm

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