ICE agents and analysts in a state in the Southwest developed information from a SAR that an out-of-state business was structuring deposits of large sums of cash and was operating as an unlicensed MSB. During a two-month period, this business made outgoing wire transfers totaling approximately $…
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A subject was sentenced in United States District Court to serve the longest prison term possible under Federal sentencing guidelines for claiming he was earning huge profits on a stock trading formula where he was actually using investors’ money to buy homes and luxury items. The subject was…
In a case propelled by information found in BSA records, an individual pleaded guilty to numerous charges, including the production of false identification documents. Notably, as soon as investigators became aware of the suspect's activity they queried BSA records and found details related to…
A Suspicious Activity Report detailing more than $4.6 million worth of fraudulent activity associated with electronics sales over the Internet prompted a SAR review team to initiate a case on a subject known to have been previously identified with fraudulent activity. The filer reported that the…
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…
Immigration and Customs Enforcement conducted an investigation based on a number of Suspicious Activity Reports involving a licensed money services business. The owners and operators of the money services business conspired with unlicensed money remitters (couriers) to commit criminal acts. The…
An investigator in the District Attorney’s office was conducting a proactive search in the BSA database for illicit activity and found a SAR filed on a business thought to be operating as an unlicensed money remitter. The office opened an investigation on the subjects of the SAR and obtained…
A bank filed a SAR reporting the deposit of U.S. Treasury checks to an account held by a deceased customer (a retired government employee) receiving monthly retirement benefits. The bank determined that its customer died in 1998. For two and one half years following the customer’s death, her…
A federal judge has ordered more than 24 years of prison time for a former loan officer who was found guilty on all eight counts of an indictment charging conspiracy, bank fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering. Several financial institutions identified unusual transactions related to the…