Qatar’s Doha Bank Fined by Treasury Dept Over Transactions Potentially Tied to Terrorism

Money Laundering Alert ^ | 24 Apr 09 | Brian Monroe

[LSUfan]

The U.S. Treasury Department fined the U.S. branch of Qatar’s largest private commercial bank $5 million Tuesday to settle charges that it failed to report transactions potentially tied to terrorism.

Doha Bank failed to file regulatory suspicious activity reports (SARs) more than 500 times, and poorly audited its compliance program, according to the department’s Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). The bank also had an antiquated wire transfer system that prevented it from finding and aggregating suspicious transactions, according to a consent order.