A proactive SAR review task force identified a record that described structuring in an account of an individual who was subsequently found to not be involved in the suspected criminal activity. The investigators began focusing on the subject who caused the structured transaction noted in the SAR…
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Six defendants pled guilty and received prison time for defrauding investors in a case that started when a securities firm noticed suspect transactions and reported the activity to law enforcement. The defendants created a bogus investment scheme, marketed it over the Internet, and defrauded…
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 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…
Case one. A multi-agency investigation of several subjects engaged in a Ponzi scheme, in which 5,000 investors were defrauded of $67 million, was aided by the filing of a SAR by a financial institution in Hawaii. Proceeds of the scheme were deposited into numerous accounts at various business…
Information gleaned from a review of SARs filed by financial institutions identified two brothers who are under investigation for operating an illegal money remitter business. USCS agents have documented in excess of $12 million being wired to foreign locations, primarily Singapore and Indonesia…
An IRS investigation in Virginia was initiated on the owner of a travel agency for currency structuring charges after the analysis of SAR and CTR filings. In addition to the travel agency, the defendant operated a money transmittal business that was wiring funds to his business interests in Lima…
Through a proactive review of SARs, law enforcement found that the purveyor of illicit devices structured millions of dollars of proceeds into a financial institution. The devices were a violation of state law and hence led to a charge of money laundering. In the indictment, prosecutors sought…
The deadline to file a Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts form ("FBAR") with the U.S. Department of the Treasury, in accordance with 31 CFR 103.24, for each calendar year is on or before June 30th of the following year. Thus, the deadline to file the FBAR for calendar year 2001 is…
The defendants in this case first settled a civil suit with the government concerning the sale of $7 million worth of fraudulent “prime-bank” note investments to investors nationwide. In the scheme, investigators found that less than half the money was used to pay fictitious investment returns…