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.

SARs Result in Sentencing of Family Members in Bankruptcy Fraud Case

Three family members pled guilty to charges including bankruptcy fraud, structuring, providing false statements, and mail fraud for their involvement in a bankruptcy fraud scheme that included structuring transactions and concealing funds from credit card companies and financial institutions,…

BSA Records Identify Accounts and Transactions Related to an Illegal Gambling Enterprise

In a case where Federal prosecutors stepped in to help local law enforcement, BSA records identified millions of dollars generated through an illegal gambling operation. State authorities had few tools to punish the defendants because the state charges were only misdemeanors. To shut down the…

SARs Help Investigators Stop Fraudsters in Elder Financial Exploitation Case

Investigators opened a case after receiving a call from a family friend of a wealthy elderly woman who suspected the woman was being taken advantage of financially. With this information the law enforcement officials proceeded to research BSA documents and found SARs describing structuring on…

SARs Lead to Serial Mortgage Fraud Offender

A SAR filed by a bank on a subject for orchestrating a series of structured transactions revealed that those transactions occurred while the subject was on probation for an earlier criminal offense. During proactive reviews of SARs, an analyst recognized the defendant’s name and forwarded the…

Suspicious Activity Reports Document Bank Transactions on Behalf of Drug Trafficker

Investigators looking at a drug trafficking organization were helped by Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) that a bank filed on an individual who laundered the illicit proceeds. Prosecutors charged that individual with hiding more than $800,000 belonging to an accused drug dealer involved in a…

Analysis of SAR Filings and CTRs Leads to Indictments of Criminal Organization

A U.S. Customs Service investigation in Houston of a criminal organization involved in the repackaging and exportation of stolen commercial baby formula was aided by an analysis of SAR filings and CTRs. The criminal network, which operated in several states, laundered their illicit profits…

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…

SAR Filing Unveils Customs Fraud

A U.S. Customs Service investigation in the Washington, D.C. area was initiated after a Virginia-based bank reported suspicious currency activity on a suspected money launderer. The information indicated possible structuring of financial transactions. The suspect had no visible means of support…

Stock Fraud Cheats Elderly out of $100 Million

Indictments announced on July 8, 1999, in Manhattan, New York allege that a stock broker from Naples, Florida and other defendants bilked investors by lying to them, performing unauthorized trades, ignoring sell orders, engaging in forgery, and committing outright theft. Some investors, mostly…

Conviction for Making False Statements

A federal judge sentenced the defendant to a prison term after a jury found the defendant guilty of several counts of making false statements to a federally insured bank.

The defendant owned a construction firm. A federally insured bank granted the defendant a working capital line of…