An official website of the United States Government
Newsroom
Case Examples
An investigation by Federal law enforcement agencies led to the conviction of a mortgage broker who pleaded guilty to structuring more than $600,000 into multiple accounts at various financial institutions. The defendant admitted to officials that he did so to avoid CTR filing requirements.In one…
Case Examples
Two suspects, a husband and wife, had been corresponding with individuals in Nigeria for several months concerning a transfer of $30 million from Nigeria to their bank account. The suspects, skeptical of the promises made by the foreign philanthropist, performed their own investigation via the…
Case Examples
Between November 2000 and January 2001, SARs were filed by two (2) banks indicating accounts controlled by Victor Alberto Venero-Garrido had received large and suspicious deposits totaling over $22 million. Following the filing of the SARs, a money laundering investigation was initiated. The…
Case Examples
In early 2012, FinCEN conducted outreach to all of its state and local law enforcement partners, and asked for cases where FinCEN data played a useful role in their investigations. Below, in their own words, is an example of how FinCEN's stakeholders use FinCEN data. It has been edited only for…
Case Examples
In September 2003, an Iraqi national was sentenced in federal court after pleading guilty in June 2003 to one count of 18 USC 1956 (h): conspiracy to launder money with the underlying offense of 18 USC 1957 (engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from a Specified Unlawful Activity […
Case Examples
During a healthcare fraud investigation, a routine search of BSA records revealed CTRs and SARs on one of the subjects. These records opened up avenues of prosecution for money laundering charges as the SARs detailed a series of transactions designed to evade the BSA reporting requirements. Court…
Case Examples
A Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) investigation into a local cocaine and marijuana trafficker involved more than one cooperating source who knew of the trafficker but had no biographical data. A SAR was located that identified the trafficker, provided biographical data and notations that the…
Case Examples
On July 1, 1998, the Chief Financial Officer, President, and Vice-President of a check cashing company were arrested on money laundering charges stemming from a two-year investigation conducted by the Los Angeles office of the FBI and the Los Angeles Police Department. According to corporate…
Case Examples
A Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Bank Secrecy Act Enforcement Team received information that a business was a check cashing service, but the transactions within their bank accounts indicated that the business was involved in domestic money laundering and a pyramid fraud scheme. It…