Bridger PenningtonFund Launch & Investment Expert

They Got Fined 1.1 BILLION Dollars 🤯

28 Jul 2025 · 1 min

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A former UK bank employee describes how their employer was fined $1.1 billion by OFAC for holding accounts tied to sanctioned countries like Sudan and Iran, even though no transactions went through. The bank's mistake: not knowing the law was no defense.

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We got fined $1.1 billion, even though we didn't transact with any of them. It was Friday at 5 o'clock, as it always happens. I had the pleasure of working for a large UK bank. Somebody says, hey, can you look at this? We got to give it to the US regulator. Why? Why me? Like, yo, you're American. I'm sitting in Singapore at the time. I'm like, I can't figure this out. They're like, well, we have to give it to the OFAC, which is the Foreign Account Control. I said, well, okay, I'll just do a quick search of all the countries on the list. Sudan, Iran, they were all there. They were all on the list of American client account holders. We got fined $1.1 billion even though we didn't transact with any of them. It's just because we had our account open with them. It was a fascinating exercise in how the government will hold you accountable for your actions even when you didn't know you did it. So ignorance is not an excuse.