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Local Official Sentenced for Tax Evasion and Structuring

An elected official structured transactions in an attempt to disguise from the IRS his earnings from personal businesses. Investigators discovered the structuring after reviewing SARs filed by banks that detailed the illicit transactions.

The official operated a retail business and law…

Interpretation of Suspicious Activity Reporting Requirements to Permit the Unitary Filing of Suspicious Activity and Blocking Reports

This FinCEN interpretive guidance clarifies that reports filed with the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) of blocked transactions with Specially Designated Global Terrorists, Specially Designated Terrorists, Foreign Terrorist Organizations, Specially…

Bank Secrecy Act Report Leads to Investigation Involving Immigration Violations, Money Laundering at Food Products Supplier

An investigation into a seemingly legitimate business uncovered what was in fact a vehicle for money laundering, smuggling and other crimes. BSA information assisted a federal agent in identifying monthly cash deposits of nearly $2 million into business accounts and wire transfers of millions of…

State Coordinator’s Case Example (Identity Theft)

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…

Bank Secrecy Act Records Link Gambling Ring to Structuring at Casinos

Arrests of more than two dozen people associated with an organized crime-controlled sports-betting ring was made possible, in part, because law enforcement officials were able to track some of the subjects’ suspicious financial transactions through review of BSA data. According to police, the…

Organized Crime Network Attacked With the Help of SARs

The U.S. Customs Service in Chicago conducted an investigation of a Russian and Lithuanian organized crime group that was heavily involved in the smuggling of stolen luxury vehicles out of the U.S. into Europe. Independent analysis of a SAR filing showed suspicious behavior that related to the…

SAR Leads to Guilty Plea of Money Laundering

A SAR filed by a bank revealed that an individual had deposited over $44,000 to and withdrawn over $31,000 from his account in a one-month period. Subpoenaed bank records revealed that this individual had deposited over $103,000 in a nine-month period from late 1999 to mid-2000. The individual…

Suspicious Activity Reports Aid Conviction of Drug Dealers

In 2003, two defendants plead guilty to multiple drug-related and money laundering charges. A third subject pled guilty to an additional charge of Dealing in Unlawful Proceeds.

Narcotics agents with a State Attorney General’s Office initiated the investigation as an interdiction case. The…

SARs Aid Investigators in Case Where an Auto Dealer Laundered Drug Proceeds

SARs provided helpful information to investigators in making a case against an auto dealer and several associates involved in a drug trafficking and money laundering organization. During a 5-month investigation, Federal agents uncovered a scheme that involved cash purchases at the dealership of…

SAR Leads to Structuring Conviction for Mortgage Broker

A federal law enforcement investigation led to the conviction of a mortgage broker who structured more than $500,000 into multiple accounts at various financial institutions. As part of the defendant’s guilty plea to structuring, he admitted that he structured specifically to avoid the Bank…