It was a fine so nice, the state got it twice.
Top New York financial regulator Benjamin Lawsky socked the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ with a second, stiffer fine of $315 million for misleading his office about the extent of its dealings with Iran and other blacklisted countries.
The fine comes on top of a $250 million penalty the bank paid in June 2013 to Lawsky’s Department of Financial Services for doing business with banned nations.
Benjamin LawskyAPLawsky dinged the bank a second time for pressuring consulting firm PriceWaterhouseCoopers into preparing a watered-down report for regulators. In August, PwC settled with the DFS for $25 million.
The bank hired PwC in 2007 to detail its dollar-clearing activities for Iran, Sudan and Burma, giving those blacklisted countries access to the US financial system through a back door.
“It is clear that we — as a regulatory community — 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,” Lawsky said in a statement Tuesday.
The DFS also demanded the bank remove a top compliance officer and ban two other employees from doing any business with New York banks as part of the settlement.


