U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

News

Members of the media may email inquiries or interview requests to press@fincen.gov.

If you are not a member of the media, please visit the FinCEN contact page.

Cocaine Dealer Sentenced to Life in Prison for Distribution, Structuring, and Money Laundering

BSA information played a key role in the investigation and prosecution of a major drug trafficker. The information allowed investigators and prosecutors to identify additional accounts as well as measures that the defendant took to hide his illicit gains.

A cocaine dealer was recently…

SARs Help Bust $1 Million Drug Ring Led by Significantly Older Student

SARs helped Federal investigators unravel a cross-country drug trafficking ring centered around a large urban university campus. The case featured shipments of marijuana and subsequent large currency deposits and withdrawals designed to avoid reporting requirements. Notably, a financial…

SARs Lead to Discovery of $1.8 Million Hidden in House

In a case started from SARs, investigators executing a search warrant found $1.8 million of unreported income stashed in a closet. Although the defendants legally earned the funds, they established a system to convert business revenues to cash with the explicit purpose of evading taxes. SARs…

Suspicious Activity Report Credited with Revealing Bank Fraud Scheme and Unraveling Auto Insurance Fraud Ring that Nets Principal Defendant Nearly $1.3 Million and a Nine-Year Prison Term

In a case initiated from a Suspicious Activity Report (SAR), investigators found perpetrators were operating two separate fraud schemes. The first scheme, a check-kiting fraud, was only possible because of the complicity provided by the chief defendant’s wife who worked at the bank where the…

Attorney Sentenced in Fraud Case

An attorney was sentenced to more than four years probation based on a conviction for mail fraud and structuring of currency transactions. The attorney was also ordered to pay nearly $3 million in restitution to the victims of the various schemes and ordered to cooperate with the Internal

Jury Convicts Man in Unlicensed Money Transmission Scheme

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…

SAR Filings Lead to Discovery of Major Investment Scam

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…

Suspect Sentenced to Five Years in Prison and Ordered to Pay $1 Million in Restitution

A suspect who owed the Internal Revenue Service more than $1 million was sentenced to more than five years in prison after pleading guilty to illegally structuring financial transactions and conspiring to defraud the United States Government.

The defendant’s spouse also pleaded guilty to…

Illicit Wire Activity Destined for Sanctioned Country

Law enforcement initiated an investigation into a defendant for operating an unlicensed money transmitting business and assisting the business in the avoidance of Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) sanctions on a designated country.

The defendant was convicted of violating the…

Bank Secrecy Act Records, Tellers’ Testimony Lead to Convictions for Medicare Fraud, Structuring, and Money Laundering

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.…