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.

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 Reports Cast Doubts on Alleged Victim’s Story, Lead to Investigation and Indictment for Money Laundering and Operating an Illegal Online Pharmacy

An individual approached federal authorities and reported a story about drug smugglers. Agents questioned the individual's story and sought to authenticate his statements with queries in the BSA database. They instead found over a dozen CTRs and SARs that indicated the individual was involved in…

Structuring Charges Help Elderly Victim Recover Stolen Funds

Case summary: A woman was sentenced in 2010 after pleading guilty to a structuring charge resulting from the theft of funds from her elderly mother. Although the defendant received a relatively light sentence, the assistant U.S. attorney prosecuting the case noted that structuring was the only…

BSA Records Help Investigators Break Multi-Million Dollar Racketeering Scheme in the Trash Hauling Industry

In late 2006, a United States Attorney’s Office secured a guilty plea in a major racketeering case involving trash collectors and organized crime. The multi-state investigation included ten federal, state, and local agencies and resulted in a multiple-count indictment. Hundreds of BSA records…

Man Pleads Guilty to Laundering $5.9 Million in Drug Proceeds

An individual from Catlettsbury, Kentucky pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court on May 19, 1999, to laundering $5.9 million in drug proceeds from the sale of marijuana in West Virginia and Kentucky. The indictment alleged that the individual, his brothers, his stepbrother, and three other…

SAR Filings Unveil Fraudulent Securities Dealer

Two SARs filed by a central Florida bank resulted in the initiation of a money laundering investigation of a fraudulent securities dealer operating a prime bank fraud scheme. The SARs reported unusual account activity and international wire transfers in the tens of millions of dollars. The case…