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A man with a compulsive gambling addiction embezzled millions of dollars from a public utility and lived the life of a “high roller” for several years before being caught. The defendant established several shell corporations to bilk a county for water well capacity rights. As part of the…

Federal prosecutors used information directly derived from FinCEN records to help convict a repeat drug trafficker. The wealth accumulated by the defendant through illicit drug sales became evident with the filing of numerous CTRs documenting transactions at casinos, a Form 8300 filed in…

In 2005, a federal judge sentenced an individual to two years in prison for structuring monetary transactions to avoid reporting requirements. The case started when a financial institution documented unusual financial activity on a series of SARs and notified the Internal Revenue Service, which…

A multi-agency task force, led by the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation, is investigating violations related to money laundering, tax fraud and material support to terrorism. As a…

A jury found the defendant guilty of structuring after a pattern of transactions designed to evade currency transaction reporting requirements was identified. Prosecutors did not allege that the structured funds were derived from criminal activity.The jury found the defendant guilty of structuring…

Information gleaned by an interagency investigation from SARs led to the successful prosecution of a man for operating an illegal money transmitting system. On April 30, 2002, a federal jury convicted the defendant for knowingly running an illegal money transmitting operation without a state…

SARs filed by banks on an officer of an Indiana financial services company led to the discovery and dismantling of a scam that defrauded investors out of an estimated $35-40 million. The SARs were filed after the banks detected the officer was structuring cash withdrawals to avoid Currency…

In January 2002, an investigation was initiated, subsequent to receiving SARs, into the operation of an unlicensed money remitter.A foreign bank account, containing approximately $3 million, was frozen at the request of USCS agents. A federal search warrant was also executed at the subject's…

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…

A Suspicious Activity Report filing prompted a Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigation into the activities of a subject from another country. The Suspicious Activity Report alleged that after an initial account opening deposit, the subject had structured deposits exceeding $700,…