Standard Chartered Fined for Violating Russia Sanctions
March 31 2020 - 04:53PM
Dow Jones News
By Dylan Tokar
U.K. authorities have fined Standard Chartered PLC for violating
sanctions that the European Union imposed on Russia following its
annexation of the Crimea region of Ukraine in 2014.
The British bank must pay GBP20.47 million ($25.41 million) for
violating the EU's sanctions against Russia, the U.K. Treasury's
Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation said in a decision
published Tuesday. The fine is the largest imposed yet by the
agency, which was created in 2016.
The penalty is the consequence of a series of loans Standard
Chartered made to a Turkish bank owned by Sberbank of Russia -- one
of the entities blacklisted by the EU in July 2014.
The bank identified and reported the alleged sanctions
violations to authorities and took remedial steps following the
breach, Standard Chartered said in a statement Tuesday. It said the
fine wouldn't impact its financial results.
"We remain unwaveringly committed to complying with all
applicable financial sanctions' regulations," the bank said.
The OFSI Tuesday said Standard Chartered's sanctions failings
persisted over a long period, with the bank making 102 loans to the
Turkish lender Denizbank A between 2015 and 2018.
While some were permitted, 70 of the loans, with an estimated
value of more than GBP266 million ($330.25 million), were in breach
of the Ukraine-related sanctions regulation.
The authority agreed to reduce the bank's penalties by 30%,
because of the self-disclosure of the violations, the detailed
reports it provided and its overall cooperation with OFSI's own
investigation.
Standard Chartered has dealt with other breaches of sanctions
regulations over the years. In 2019, it agreed to pay $1.1 billion
to settle allegations that it violated sanctions on Iran and other
countries. The settlement ended long-running probes by the U.S.
Justice Department, the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority and other
agencies.
Standard Chartered at the time said it accepted responsibility
for the violations while also blaming some of the activities on two
unnamed former employees.
Write to Dylan Tokar at dylan.tokar@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 31, 2020 16:38 ET (20:38 GMT)
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