Block to pay about $964M to settle US DOJ anti-money-laundering probe

TREE NEWS update: Block, the payments company led by Jack Dorsey, disclosed in a regulatory filing Tuesday that it reached an agreement in principle with the US Department of Justice in October over its anti-money-laundering compliance, under which the DOJ will defer prosecution for three years on charges it failed to maintain an effective AML program in violation of the Bank Secrecy Act. The deferred-prosecution agreement, still subject to court approval, carries a total of about $964 million, with a net payment of about $764 million. Block had recorded a $526 million accrual at the end of June and raised it to $764 million at the end of September.