If you work for Citibank Japan, we’re sad to hear that you’ll be spending a month sitting in the corner with your head hung in shame. Starting July 15th, they’ve been ordered by the government to take a month off as penance for various indiscretions:

Japan’s financial regulator has ordered Citigroup to halt some of its businesses for a month and fundamentally improve its internal controls, after finding that the US group failed to implement sufficient measures aimed at preventing suspicious transactions, including money laundering.

This is the Financial Services Agency’s second penalty against the US bank in the past five years.

The FSA ordered Citi to halt the marketing of all financial products to retail customers for a month beginning July 15.

Citi was also ordered to revamp its governance structure and internal controls and has said it would submit a business improvement plan to Japan’s financial regulator.

Chief among Citi’s transgressions was the failure to update a money-laundering database in the last five years, which means that while Jimmy Hoffa couldn’t have recently run funds through there, presumably Bernie Madoff or his associates could have until a few days ago. The penalty is pretty much just a shake-of-the-finger scolding, as it has no impact on institutional clients or anyone seeking to do business with Citi. Just… on their marketing. Vikram Bandit, may Godzilla smite all your billboards.