Block Books $764 Million for a Planned DOJ Bank Secrecy Act Deal

Block, the company behind Cash App and Square, has accrued $764 million for a planned deal with the U.S. Justice Department, its quarterly report filed Tuesday shows. The deal is not final.

Block and the DOJ reached an agreement in principle in October, the filing says. Under it, prosecutors would defer for three years "a charge that the Company failed to maintain an effective anti-money laundering program in violation of the Bank Secrecy Act." If Block meets every obligation for those three years, the DOJ would move to dismiss the charge with prejudice, which means it could not be brought again.

How a deferred prosecution works

A deferred prosecution agreement is a middle path between a trial and walking away. Prosecutors file a charge but park it. The company pays money and accepts conditions, which can include outside monitors. Break the terms, and the charge can come back. Block's filing warns that failing to meet the terms "could subject us to prosecution on the deferred charge, or additional penalties."

The planned payment has a gross figure of about $964 million. Block expects to pay about $764 million net, after credit for earlier regulatory settlements. One of those came in January 2025, when Block settled with a group of state money-transmission regulators over parts of its anti-money laundering program, the filing says. Unchained reported that the accrual was $526 million at the end of June.

Block's side is in the filing too. The company says the deal still needs "a final agreement satisfactory to all parties and court approval," and that it cannot promise one will be reached. The inquiries began shortly after a short seller's report in March 2023. SEC staff told Block in March 2026 that they had closed their own investigation without recommending enforcement action.

In our opinion: Nearly a billion dollars gross is the price tag for a compliance gap, and the bill has grown since June. The bigger stake is the next three years, when a deferred charge hangs over the company. Watch for the final agreement and any monitor terms, because those decide how Cash App checks its customers.

Cash App lets everyday users buy and sell bitcoin, so its compliance rules shape one of the main retail routes into crypto in the U.S.