Industrial Bank of Korea (IBK) has agreed to pay a fine of $86 million (about 104.9 billion won) to U.S. law enforcement authorities in connection with the alleged violation of U.S. sanctions against Iran.
Reuters reported on April 20 (local time) quoting U.S. officials as saying, "IBK admitted to committing serious crimes under the Banking Secrets Protection Act (BSA) on the prevention of money laundering at its New York branch between 2011 and 14."
According to Reuters, Kenneth Zong, who was a U.S. citizen at the time and engaged in intermediary trade on behalf of Iran, withdrew the U.S. dollar in 2011 using marble tile export contracts and invoices that forged the export money he received from the New York branch of the IBK and transferred it to Iranian officials overseas.
The Korean prosecution also arrested and indicted the head of the company after detecting circumstantial evidence that the company took about 1 trillion won (some $8.2 billion) from an account under the name of Iran's central bank opened at the IBK through a false transaction of marble from Dubai in 2013.
IBK was accused of violating the U.S. anti-money laundering law in the process of arranging remittances because it failed to grasp the disguised transactions of the company in a timely manner.
Reuters reported that the person involved in the false transaction was Kenneth Jong, a former Alaska citizen who is currently in his 80s, and explained that he forged a marble tile export contract and invoice to withdraw the won currency from the Industrial Bank of Korea's won payment account in dollars and remit it to a third country.
Out of $86 million, the IBK will pay $51 million to the U.S. prosecution and $35 million to the New York State Financial Services Administration.
