Financial services firm Western Union (WU) has reached a $586m settlement with the US Department of Justice, in part due to the company’s involvement with Costa Rica-based online gambling operators.

A year ago, WU revealed that the US Attorney for the Southern District of Florida had issued a subpoena requesting company documents regarding suspected online gambling transactions with Western Union agents in multiple countries, including Costa Rica, Panama, Nicaragua, the Philippines and Vietnam.

On Thursday, the DOJ announced that WU had agreed to forfeit $586m – the largest penalty ever imposed on a money services business – and admit to criminal violations including willfully failing to maintain an effective anti-money laundering (AML) program and aiding and abetting wire fraud.

A significant portion of WU’s shenanigans involved processing payments for an international fraud scheme, in which fraudsters contacted victims in the US posing as relatives in need of cash, or falsely promised prizes or job opportunities in exchange for cash sent to an international WU office. Some WU agents were complicit in this fraud.