Who's Watching Your Money? Banks, Scams & Your 401(k)

On October 13th, the US Treasury announced more than $1.2 billion in penalties against Bank of America.

That's the second largest bank in the country.

Treasury's Financial Crimes Office, they call it FinCEN, put a $1.2 billion penalty on the bank.

The OCC, that's the agency that regulates the big national banks, assessed $750 million, and that one is the largest penalty in the OCC's history.

The largest.

Ever.

On top of that, the bank settled sanctions violations involving Iran, Russia, narcotics, and terrorism.

Now, what did they do? According to Treasury, Bank of America admitted it willfully violated the Bank Secrecy Act.

That's the law that says banks have to watch for money laundering and report it.

Treasury says the bank failed to report more than $5 billion in suspicious activity.

$5 billion! And the OCC said the bank's monitoring system failed to properly watch trillions of dollars in transactions.

Trillions, with a T.

And who was moving all that money? Treasury said the bank failed to deal with what it called priority national security

risks, Chinese money laundering networks, illegal money moving along the southwest border.

Now, think about that.

If you or I deposit a check that looks a little funny, they'll hold it for a week.

They'll call us.

They'll ask us 20 questions about our own money.

Meanwhile, according to the government, billions of dollars in suspicious activity went by without being reported, the way the law requires.

One set of rules for you and me, another set for the big boys.

And it's not the first time.

Back in 2023, federal regulators ordered Bank of America to pay more than $250 million over junk fees, withheld credit card rewards, and opening accounts without customers' permission.

Without their permission.

So when a bank tells you, trust us, we've got it handled, you're allowed to ask a few questions.

And here's the part that got me.