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An individual approached federal authorities and reported a story about drug smugglers. Agents questioned the individual's story and sought to authenticate his statements with queries in the BSA database. They instead found over a dozen CTRs and SARs that indicated the individual was involved in a…

A bank filed a SAR on an elected official from a suburban locality who structured transactions totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars. The SAR triggered an investigation that confirmed the structuring and identified evidence that the elected official committed perjury while filing a bankruptcy…

A case initiated through a SAR review team identified a money remitter structuring transactions through multiple banks and accounts. Although registered withFinCEN, he did not properly license his business with state authorities. The banks initially became suspicious when he used his personal bank…

In a case where a corrupt politician extorted money from his constituents, investigators examining his financial records found numerous instances of structuring. In fact, three different banks filed SARs on the defendant detailing unusual transactions. Prosecutors charged the official with multiple…

A federal law enforcement investigation led to the conviction of a mortgage broker who structured more than $500,000 into multiple accounts at various financial institutions. As part of the defendant’s guilty plea to structuring, he admitted that he structured specifically to avoid the Bank Secrecy…

An individual walked into a Pennsylvania bank and opened one individual account and two business accounts. The individual then walked across the street to a different bank and opened three additional accounts. Unbeknownst to the individual, these two banks were in the process of merging and his…

Investigators opened a case after receiving a call from a family friend of a wealthy elderly woman who suspected the woman was being taken advantage of financially. With this information the law enforcement officials proceeded to research BSA documents and found SARs describing structuring on the…

An FBI agent proactively reviewing SARs identified a potential fraud scheme. However, as he dug deeper into the scheme, he learned the perpetrators of the crimes were in fact victims of yet another fraud based on high-yield investments. This second scheme led to a series of international…

A business owner who ran a pharmaceutical business that defrauded drug manufacturers was sentenced to nearly two years in prison, three months of supervised probation and ordered to make restitution of $513,369.40. The sentence resulted from a guilty plea to one felony count each for conspiracy to…

Through the review of a Suspicious Activity Report, the Federal Bureau of Investigation launched an investigation into an internal bank fraud that resulted in the conviction of the former president of the bank and his personal banking customer. In 2003, the two defendants were convicted at trial…