General counsel and their companies can take a valuable lesson from the MoneyGram International Inc. case—dragging your feet on compliance can be costly in more ways than one.

Dallas-based MoneyGram agreed Thursday to pay $125 million to settle allegations that the money transfer company failed to fulfill nearly all the compliance requirements of a 2009 order from the Federal Trade Commission. MoneyGram also violated the terms of its 2012 deferred prosecution agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice.