Timeline14 cases
US prosecutors turned AML and sanctions failures into multibillion-dollar resolutions, journalists at OCCRP mapped laundromats moving tens of billions out of Russia, and fraud moved into cyber heists and digital currency.
A deferred prosecution agreement on 17 Mar 2010 found Wachovia had failed to monitor wires, bulk cash, and remote deposits from Mexican casas de cambio, 2004 to 2007.
Scale
$420 billion+ unmonitored; $160 million paidBarclays became the first bank to settle in June 2012 for rigging the interbank rate behind trillions in loans and derivatives; CEO Bob Diamond resigned and other banks followed.
Scale
$450 million+ for Barclays aloneHSBC admitted on 11 Dec 2012 that the Sinaloa and Norte del Valle cartels laundered money through its US and Mexican units; it took a deferred prosecution agreement and a monitor.
Scale
$881 million laundered; $1.92 billion paidA Costa Rica-based digital currency service used by cybercriminals worldwide was shut down in 2013; founder Arthur Budovsky got 20 years in 2016.
Scale
$6 billion alleged; 1 million+ usersFrance's largest bank pleaded guilty on 30 June 2014 to routing transactions for Sudan, Iran, and Cuba through New York from 2004 to 2012 and hiding them.
Scale
About $8.9 billion, the largest sanctions penalty to that dateShell companies created fake debts that corrupt Moldovan courts ordered Russian firms to pay, moving money through Moldova and Latvia into the EU; OCCRP and Novaya Gazeta exposed it.
Scale
$20.8 billion laundered across 96 countriesA Bulgarian "cryptocurrency" with no real blockchain was sold through network marketing; founder Ruja Ignatova was charged in October 2017 and remains a fugitive on the FBI's Most Wanted list.
Scale
Up to $4 billionFunds were siphoned from a Malaysian sovereign fund through offshore shells linked to Jho Low; Goldman Sachs had underwritten $6.5 billion in bonds and paid $2.9 billion in 2020. Jho Low is still a fugitive.
Scale
About $4.5 billion stolenSoftware made diesel cars pass emissions tests while polluting far more on the road; the EPA issued its notice in September 2015 and VW pleaded guilty in the US in 2017.
Scale
About 11 million cars worldwide; $4.3 billion US criminal and civil penaltiesA blood-testing startup claimed technology that did not work; The Wall Street Journal exposed it in October 2015, and Elizabeth Holmes was convicted in January 2022.
Scale
Valued at $9 billion at peak; Holmes sentenced to 11+ yearsHackers tied to North Korea's Lazarus Group sent 35 fraudulent SWIFT orders from Bangladesh Bank's New York Fed account in February 2016; $81 million was washed through RCBC and Philippine casinos.
Scale
$951 million attempted; $101 million paid outA leak of 11.5 million files from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca to Süddeutsche Zeitung and ICIJ in April 2016 exposed how 214,488 offshore entities hid assets for politicians, oligarchs, and fraudsters; the firm shut down in March 2018.
Scale
11.5 million leaked files; 214,488 offshore entities; $1.36 billion+ recouped by governmentsEmployees under sales quotas opened millions of accounts customers never authorized; regulators fined the bank in 2016 and DOJ and the SEC settled in February 2020.
Scale
$3 billion paid in 2020The Estonian branch served high-risk non-resident customers, largely from Russia and the former Soviet Union, from 2008 to 2016; Danske misled US banks about its controls and pleaded guilty on 13 Dec 2022.
Scale
$160 billion through US banks; $2 billion forfeited2010s
Books first, then official reports and court records, then key journalism, grouped by case.
