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WASHINGTON—Today, the United States Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) assessed a $100,000 civil money penalty on Gyanendra Kumar Asre (Asre) for willful violations of the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and its implementing regulations. FinCEN’s action also imposes a five-year ban on Asre’s participation in the conduct of the affairs of any financial institution subject to the BSA.
“Asre allowed millions of dollars in high-risk transactions to be processed without required anti-money laundering controls or reporting to FinCEN,” said FinCEN Director Andrea Gacki. “Today’s action serves as a reminder that FinCEN will not hesitate to take action against individuals when their conduct jeopardizes the integrity of our financial system.”
Asre admitted to willfully violating the BSA. Asre failed to register his money services business (MSB) with FinCEN and, in his capacity as the BSA Compliance Officer of a credit union, failed to maintain an effective AML program and failed to detect and report suspicious transactions. During Asre’s tenure as BSA Compliance Officer, the credit union’s risk profile drastically increased, including by providing services to Asre’s unregistered MSB. Despite these elevated risks, Asre failed to implement adequate AML controls. As a result, hundreds of millions of dollars in high-risk and suspicious funds—including substantial bulk cash deposits—moved through the credit union without proper monitoring or reporting to FinCEN.
FinCEN appreciates the close collaboration with its partners at the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) on this matter and thanks the Department of Justice Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section (MLARS) for its work on the parallel criminal matter. Today, Asre entered into a guilty plea with MLARS for criminally violating the BSA.
FinCEN’s Office of Enforcement is responsible for investigating serious violations of the BSA. For additional information regarding the facts and circumstances associated with this enforcement action, including the specific BSA violations and their underlying causes, please see the Consent Order between FinCEN and Asre here.
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