Western Union Co., the world’s biggest money-transfer business, will pay $94 million to help fight crime along the U.S.-Mexico border, resolving disputes with Arizona over alleged abuses of wire transfers.
The Douglas County-based company will pay $21 million to the state and contribute $50 million to a nonprofit organization that will make grants to law enforcement to pay for investigations and prosecutions of money laundering, human trafficking and smuggling of drugs and weapons along the U.S.-Mexico border, according to a statement from Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard.
The settlement resolves court cases, regulatory actions and assertions by Arizona authorities that Western Union wasn’t doing enough to detect and prevent the abuse of its services, according to the attorney general’s office.
The state had filed court cases against Western Union related to allegations that its money-transfer business was used for laundering funds.
The agreement, filed in Maricopa County Superior Court, says that between 2003 and 2007, Western Union had data that gave the company “reason to know” that independent agents of the company in Arizona were “knowingly engaged in a pattern of money-laundering violations that facilitated human smuggling from Mexico into the United States through Arizona.”
The $21 million will reimburse state and local government agencies for expenses they incurred while investigating Western Union and its agents, according to the statement. The agreement also says Western Union is expected to spend $19 million over the next several years to step up its anti-money-laundering program in the Southwest border area and pay $4 million to support an independent monitoring program.
“Assisting law enforcement in its efforts to combat illegal activity serves the public interest on both sides of the border and helps protect those who use our services,” said David Schlapbach, executive vice president and general counsel of Western Union, in the statement from the attorney general.
