Numerous individuals involved in a major Ohio sports betting ring have pled guilty to tax and gambling related charges. The ring came to light after a bank filed a SAR on a well-known professional athlete. The SAR was filed after the athlete used a $25,000 personal check to purchase ten $2,500…
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In 2003, an insurance executive pled no contest and was found guilty on a single count of aggravated theft. The defendant admitted misappropriating money that was intended to pay medical claims for the local government’s self-insured health benefits plan. Acting as the health insurance agent for…
Through a proactive review of SARs, a Federal agent identified records detailing structured transactions, unusual withdrawals, and unexplained wire transfers. The subsequent investigation uncovered over $2 million in cash and wire transfers from a drug-related money laundering conspiracy…
In a case started by a Suspicious Activity Report review team, investigators charged a restaurant owner with structuring bank deposits. The subject had been known to law enforcement for some time, and local authorities suspected him of participating in illegal activity. The resulting…
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…
A Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Bank Secrecy Act Enforcement Team received information that a business was a check cashing service, but the transactions within their bank accounts indicated that the business was involved in domestic money laundering and a pyramid fraud scheme.…
Upon receipt of a Suspicious Activity Report from a bank, the Federal Bureau of Investigation initiated a bank and mail/wire fraud investigation involving a purported charity raising money for needy people in a Middle Eastern country. The Suspicious Activity Report identified a series of checks…
SARs helped identify additional aliases, associates, and businesses of an individual that acted as a credit card ‘bust-out’ recruiter. As a recruiter, the subject assisted other individuals (usually from the same ethnic group and experiencing financial or personal difficulties) in escaping their…
Information from SARs helped unravel a complex fraudulent banking scheme in which victims lost thousands of dollars to fake investments and a multinational financial institution had its identity stolen.
The scheme to defraud investors allegedly started in late 2002, when an individual…
In a case initiated from a proactive review of SARs, an individual pled guilty to fraud when authorities discovered a scheme to defraud individuals and businesses out of millions of dollars. The SARs which triggered the investigation described in detail transactions related to the fraud. In…