“Western Union failed to implement a sufficiently effective control against gambling-related transactions,\u201d the Department concluded.<\/p>\n
Far more serious, the company failed to act to prevent transactions related to a global fraud scheme that targeted and fleeced thousands of Americans, many of them elderly.<\/p>\n
According to prosecutors, criminals contacted their victims with the promise of lottery winnings, discounted products, or job offers, or pretended to be family members in dire need of funds. Victims were told to wire money through Western Union, while agents wilfully concealed identities using false names and addresses.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs this case shows, wiring money can be the fastest way to send it: directly into the pockets of criminals and scam artists,\u201d said David Bitkower, the DOJ’s Principal Deputy Assistant\u00a0Attorney General for its Criminal Division.<\/p>\n
Many illicit transactions were for funds sent by undocumented Chinese immigrants to pay off their traffickers, the DOJ said. Chief Richard Weber, a criminal investigator with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), said the company showed \u201cblatant disregard\u201d for its anti-money laundering responsibilities.<\/p>\n
“Western Union, the largest money service business in the world, has admitted to a flawed corporate culture that failed to provide a checks and balances approach to combat criminal practices,” said Wifredo Ferrer, the US attorney for the Southern District of Florida.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
“Western Union’s failure to implement proper controls and discipline agents that violated compliance policies enabled the proliferation of illegal gambling, money laundering and fraud-related schemes,” he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Western Union will pay US federal authorities $586 million for anti-money laundering (AML) violations, the largest forfeiture ever imposed on a money services business by the Department of Justice (DOJ). The wire service company\u2019s transgressions ranged from facilitating illegal Costa Rica-based sports betting to the processing of hundreds of thousands of transactions for global fraudsters […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":44124,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,10,19,60,1074],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
DOJ Accuses Western Union of AML Violations, $586M Fine Tendered<\/title>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n