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Case Examples
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.The scheme to defraud investors allegedly started in late 2002, when an individual devised a plan…
Case Examples
Money Laundering Scheme Transferred Over $12 Million to South American Countries
Six people were convicted and sentenced for their involvement in a $12 million money laundering scheme. The scheme involved the wire transfers of drug proceeds to South American countries for the benefit of drug cartels.The defendants deposited drug proceeds into more than 50 bank accounts in the…
Case Examples
Insider Fraud Contributes to Bank Failure
The filing of a number of Suspicious Activity Reports resulted in an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation of three individuals for their part in the failure of a community bank that had been in business since the early 1900s. The individuals, one of whom was an officer at the bank,…
Case Examples
SAR Jump-Starts Investigation into Natural Resources Ponzi Scheme
A purported entrepreneur convinced scores of individuals to invest in ventures and businesses supposedly related to the extraction of natural resources that were, in reality, part of a sophisticated Ponzi scheme. The defendant followed a familiar pattern evident in such schemes: paying earlier…
Case Examples
Proactive Review of SARs Leads to Long Prison Sentences for Drug Traffickers
Through a proactive review of SARs, a Federal agent identified records detailing structured transactions, unusual withdrawals, and unexplained wire transfers. The subsequent investigation uncovered over $2 million in cash and wire transfers from a drug-related money laundering conspiracy involving…
Case Examples
Business Accused of Structuring
Immigration and Customs Enforcement conducted an investigation based on a number of Suspicious Activity Reports involving a licensed money services business. The owners and operators of the money services business conspired with unlicensed money remitters (couriers) to commit criminal acts. The…
Case Examples
Local Municipality Case Example (Drugs and Money Laundering)
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
Proactive Bank Secrecy Act Searches Lead to Crackdown on Unlicensed Money Remitters
An investigator in the District Attorney’s office was conducting a proactive search in the BSA database for illicit activity and found a SAR filed on a business thought to be operating as an unlicensed money remitter. The office opened an investigation on the subjects of the SAR and obtained guilty…
Case Examples
Local Municipality Case Example (Stolen Cars)
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
Former Bank Executive Pleads Guilty to Stealing from the Bank
In a case initiated based on the filing of a Suspicious Activity Report, a former investment officer for a bank was sentenced to two years in prison and three years supervised release and was ordered to make restitution of almost half a million dollars. He pled guilty to embezzlement by a bank…