August 2016
Suspicious Activity Reports Help Unravel Complex Fraudulent Banking Scheme
Information from SARs helped unravel a complex fraudulent banking scheme in which victims lost thousands of dollars to fake investments and a multinational financial institution had its identity stolen.
Suspicious Activity Reports Identify Money Laundering Activities
In December 2002, the New York office of the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s El Dorado Task Force identified numerous Suspicious Activity Reports that showed a pattern of suspicious financial transactions conducted by a company in the New York area. The company was identified as a money exchange business located in South America with several bank accounts in New York. The investigation revealed several companies and individuals utilizing the Black Market Peso Exchange to launder alien smuggling proceeds in violation of Title 18 U.S.C. 1956, Money Laundering.
Suspicious Activity Reports Identify Non-Profit Organizations As Illegal Money Remitters
In 2003, Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents initiated an investigation of several non-profit organizations in the United States. These were all registered as tax-exempt organizations. The investigation revealed the organizations were operating as illegal wire remitting businesses, allegedly co-mingling drug proceeds with donations. Suspicious Activity Report documentation revealed approximately $3 million in transactions during a three-month period.
Suspicious Activity Reports Useful in Round-Tripping Investigation
The United States Secret Service, New York Field Office, seized over $5.3 million from a correspondent account for a bank headquartered in Nigeria. Investigative leads derived from Bank Secrecy Act data determined that this account was actually owned by the Nigerian bank and operated by the bank’s president and chairman of the board of directors.