Standard Chartered Bank will pay $340 million to settle charges that the bank “schemed with the government of Iran and hid from regulators roughly 60,000 secret transactions, involving at least $250 billion, and reaping SCB hundreds of millions of dollars in fees.”

Last week the New York State Department of Financial Services charged that Standard Chartered’s actions “left the U.S. financial system vulnerable to terrorists, weapons dealers, drug kingpins and corrupt regimes, and deprived law enforcement investigators of crucial information used to track all manner of criminal activity.”

Last week, the bank “strongly rejected” allegations that it improperly processed $250 billion of transactions for Iranians.

But under the settlement, the bank admitted that the conduct at issue “involved transactions of at least $250 billion.”

As part of the settlement, the bank “will install a monitor for a term of at least two years who will report directly to DFS and who will evaluate the money-laundering risk controls in the New York branch and implementation of appropriate corrective measures.”
DFS examiners shall be placed on site at the Bank.

The settlement was a victory for DFS Superintendent Benjamin Lawsky, who came under withering criticism for bringing a case that relied on an “overbroad” interpretation of law.