WASHINGTON (8/29/14)--A New Jersey-based money services business has been fined for "willful and repeated violations" of the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), the U.S. Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) announced Thursday. BPI Inc. has admitted its conduct violated the BSA and has consented to a civil money penalty of $125,000.

BPI was cited in 2005 and 2006 for what FinCEN called "serious concerns with its anti-money laundering program" found by examiners. Federal and state examiners issued warnings and corrective actions at that time.

In 2011, an examination found the same deficiencies were still present. In addition to deficiencies with its internal controls, independent testing and training, examiners also found that, prior to the 2011 examination, BPI had never filed a single suspicious activity report.

In addition, it was found that BPI employees allowed customers to conduct transactions without verifying and retaining required identification information and allowed customers to conduct money transfers by using expired identification documents.

"There is absolutely no excuse for a financial institution to ignore such warnings and render the U.S. financial system vulnerable to money laundering and terrorist financing," said FinCEN Director Jennifer Shasky Calvery, noting that BPI had "plenty of notice of its problems" from examiners and an independent auditor.

According to FinCEN, BPI ceased operations as a money services business in March 2014.

Use the resource information to access FinCEN's civil penalty assessment.

Assessment of civil money penalty to BPI Inc. (PDF)