This doesn't seem like a valid excuse. The risk team will just tell you the probability of being fined at various levels. If the risk team tells you "there's only a 0.1% chance you will get caught for this murder" and then you get caught murdering someone you can't just say "but the risk team said I probably wouldn't get caught!"
These enforcement actions have become an unavoidable cost of doing business.
I don't know if we realize the gravity of that statement.
The current environment rewards companies who take these sorts of actions. A bank that did not take these actions would be out-competed.
It happens the same way in an individual level; the "wolf of wall street" (Jordan Belfortm) did a lot of illegal things; but despite being found guilty and forced to pay fines he is still better off for having done them (~10M offshore money and book/movie money among others).
Heck, it even happens in social interactions, for example kissing a random woman in the street without asking can give someone jail time (sexual harassment and what not) but if he is lucky she may fall for that; they may even get married later on.
When you look at it clinically it makes sense. Quite the slippery slope.
"% chance of getting in trouble if I punch this asshole in the face?"
"% chance of getting a speeding ticket if I go 15 above?"
At the same time there is complaints about how complicated the tax codes have become.