Barclays Fined in Money-Laundering Case

U.K. regulators have fined Barclays roughly $56 million for lapses in monitoring high-risk clients, including a gold company tied to one of Britain’s largest money-laundering cases. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) issued a £39 million fine related to the bank’s handling of Stunt & Co., a firm run by James Stunt. It also received an additional £3 million fine for a separate issue involving a failed wealth management company, WealthTek.

The FCA found Barclays failed to properly assess money-laundering risks, ignoring red flags such as discrepancies in Stunt & Co.’s business activity and millions in suspicious transactions from a jeweler. This was later implicated in a major laundering scheme. Despite law enforcement warnings and a police raid in 2016, Barclays took no meaningful action until many years had passed, after a related investigation into rival NatWest spurred a review.

Barclays said it cooperated fully and has since strengthened its financial crime controls. The case marks another compliance setback for the bank, which has been working to move past prior scandals involving unregistered securities and former CEO Jes Staley’s ties to Jeffrey Epstein.