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A Pacific island casino operator that was hit last month with a record fine for violating U.S. anti-money-laundering rules has settled a related criminal case with the Justice Department.

The Tinian Dynasty Hotel & Casino has agreed to forfeit $3.04 million as part of a nonprosecution agreement—the largest forfeiture ever collected by the U.S. in the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. commonwealth, according to a Thursday statement from the federal government. A representative for the casino operator didn’t provide comment.

Last month, the U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, levied a $75 million civil fine on the casino operator for what the agency called “willful and egregious” violations of anti-money-laundering rules uncovered by Internal Revenue Service investigators.

Tinian, an island located north of Guam and about three-quarters of the way from Hawaii to the Philippines, is part of the Northern Mariana Islands. Along with Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands is one of two commonwealths of the U.S.

The settlement comes as VIP junket operators from Macau—the Chinese casino capital whose gambling revenue has been in free fall the past year due to Beijing’s corruption crackdown—have grown increasingly interested in investing in the Northern Mariana Islands. Tinian Dynasty has backing from Macau junkets, according to people familiar with its operations, and Macau junket operator Heng Sheng is investing in Hong Kong-listed Imperial Pacific International Holdings’ plans for a $7 billion casino project in Saipan, another island in the commonwealth.

U.S. officials have long warned that junket operators—middlemen who use nontraditional banking networks to facilitate high-stakes gambling—pose compliance risks for U.S. casino operators who partner with them in Macau, but the Chinese territory’s status as a foreign jurisdiction has posed enforcement challenges. The Northern Mariana Islands provides U.S. officials with a bigger window into junket operations on their home turf.

A special agent from the IRS Criminal Investigation unit found that, from 2009 to 2013, the Tinian casino had failed to file more than 3,600 required reports for currency transactions over $10,000, the total value of which was around $138 million, according to court documents. Like banks, casinos must report currency transactions of more than $10,000 in cash by any person in a single day.

“This case represents the intersection of Macau gaming practices and U.S. regulation,” said Fred Gushin, managing director of Spectrum Gaming Group, which has been hired by Tinian Dynasty to bring it into compliance with U.S. anti-money-laundering regulations. The nonprosecution agreement requires the casino operator to cooperate with the U.S. in continuing criminal investigations and to overhaul its compliance procedures. Mr. Gushin said Tinian Dynasty has been cooperating with his team.

Tinian Dynasty is owned by a Northern Mariana Islands-incorporated entity called Hong Kong Entertainment (Overseas) Investments Ltd. Hong Kong-listed Chinese Strategic Holdings Ltd. said in a filing earlier this month that it planned to take over the casino after the criminal case was resolved. Chinese Strategic declined to comment beyond its filing.

The U.S. government has stepped up its scrutiny of casinos’ compliance in recent years, with almost every major Las Vegas Strip casino operator becoming subject to federal investigations involving anti-money-laundering laws.

The fine FinCEN imposed on Tinian Dynasty last month was the largest ever levied on a casino operator and the fourth largest ever imposed on any entity by the agency, according to its spokesman.

In August 2014, FinCEN fined a Tinian Dynasty executive $5,000 and permanently banned him from working at any financial institution that does business in the U.S. for his alleged role in helping high-end customers circumvent anti-money-laundering rules. FinCEN said the executive admitted wrongdoing.

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