Credit Suisse AG agreed to pay $536 million to settle claims the bank helped process payments that let Iran, Cuba and three other nations avoid government sanctions and gain access to U.S. financial markets.

Bloomberg reported Dec. 16 that the Zurich-based bank entered into a deferred prosecution agreement in settling with the U.S. Justice Department, which said Credit Suisse made more than $1.6 billion in illegal transactions involving Iran, Cuba, Sudan, Burma and Libya from the mid-1990s through 2006. The agreement also settles claims by New York prosecutors, the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department.

“The settlement we announce today ensures that Credit Suisse will not flout the law again for its own financial gain,” U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder told reporters. “We will be vigilant in enforcing this settlement and in pursuing other institutions and individuals who engage in similar illegal conduct.”

Without U.S. approval, the bank sent at least 40 outbound payment messages involving Sudan, 30 for Burma and 32 related to Cuba, the document said. The 32 Cuba transactions were apparently worth a total of $323,000.

Australia & New Zealand Bank Group Ltd. paid $5.8 million in August to settle claims it broke U.S. sanctions against Sudan and Cuba.