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…
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A bank filed a SAR reporting the deposit of U.S. Treasury checks to an account held by a deceased customer (a retired government employee) receiving monthly retirement benefits. The bank determined that its customer died in 1998. For two and one half years following the customer’s death, her…
A federal judge has ordered more than 24 years of prison time for a former loan officer who was found guilty on all eight counts of an indictment charging conspiracy, bank fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering. Several financial institutions identified unusual transactions related to the…
Investigators uncovered a large-scale mortgage fraud scheme that originated from a SAR filed on a subject, who turned out to be a victim of the fraud scheme. In addition to filing the SAR, the filing institution also notified the district attorney's office, which opened the investigation and…
In 2005, a federal task force initiated a 2-year multi-agency investigation against an online pharmaceutical distribution network, resulting in indictments against 18 individuals. The investigation was based on information received from a cooperating witness, who alleged that a pharmaceutical…
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…
In May 2000, a federal jury convicted an individual from Norwood, Massachusetts, on two counts of money laundering believed to be the proceeds of narcotic sales. At the time of the offense, the individual worked at a Brockton, Massachusetts check cashing business. In May 1998, an undercover…
In early February 2002, money-transfer agents in 14 states were raided by federal agents to stop alleged illegal wiring of millions of dollars to Iraq. Twenty-nine (29) search warrants on businesses and individuals were used, allowing law enforcement agents to seize documents and records. The…
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…
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…