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The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York on Thursday announced a settlement against a former MoneyGram International, Inc., executive under the Bank Secrecy Act.

This is the first time FinCEN sued an individual for BSA violations based on his compliance role in the organization.

Former MoneyGram Chief Compliance Officer Thomas Haider agreed to a $250,000 penalty and a three-year injunction barring him from compliance work for any money transmitter.

Heider also admitted responsibility for failing to terminate MoneyGram outlets that posed a high risk of fraud; and for structuring the company's anti-money laundering program so that some consumer fraud reports were not provided to analysists responsible for filling out suspicious activity reports.

The BSA requires money services businesses to file SARS for transactions involving funds or assets of at least $2,000 when there is suspicion or reason for suspicion that the funds came from illegal activity, are designed to evade BSA regulations, facilitate criminal activity or do not serve a lawful purpose. Civil penalties for BSA reporting failures vary.