Truist Bank pays over $9M to resolve allegations against SunTrust Bank

Truist Bank has agreed to pay the U.S. $9,125,000 to resolve allegations related to the handling of certain trust accounts by SunTrust Bank from December 2011 through December 2015.

The certain trust accounts mentioned in the case had been set up to keep a set of clients from unwisely disbursing money they received from a lead poisoning settlement near Herculaneum, Missouri. The beneficiaries of that settlement claimed they suffered health and cognitive issues from the poisoning.

The U.S. argued that instead of helping those clients as promised, SunTrust and The Halpern Group frequently approved disbursements that were not in the beneficiaries' best interest.

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia clarified that the resulting payment was made strictly to resolve the allegations. It does not indicate liability.

Note: In 2019, Atlanta-based SunTrust merged with Winston-Salem-based Branch Banking and Trust Company (BB&T) to form Truist.