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Bank Secrecy Act Records Detail Transactions Related to Illicit Smoke Shop Sales

A Federal judge sentenced the owners of a tribal tobacco shop to probation and community service, and ordered to them pay almost $10,000,000 in restitution, for conspiring to traffic in contraband cigarettes and for structuring currency transactions. The defendants earlier pleaded guilty in…

Suspicious Activity Reports Describe Marijuana Traffickers’ Attempt to Wash, Dry, and Iron “Dirty” Currency

Investigators looking into a large-scale international marijuana smuggling and money laundering operation received a break when two banks filed SARs on the targets. One bank filed SARs on structured deposits into a business account that held proceeds of the illegal operation. A second bank filed…

State Coordinator’s Case Example (Embezzlement)

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…

Currency Transaction Reports Expose Drug Traffickers Laundering Profits Through Casinos

Nine members of a drug trafficking organization were exposed and convicted largely through evidence collected from CTRs.

The defendant was known as the “money-man” of the drug trafficking organization because he was responsible for laundering the organization’s illegal proceeds from drug…

SAR Assists in Identifying Money Remitter Sending Money to Iraq

In March 2002, as a result of a lead provided from a SAR, an investigation was initiated into an individual doing business as an unlicensed money remitter. The funds were being wired to a bank account in Jordan.

In October 2002, U.S. Customs agents executed a search warrant on three…

SARs Identify Internal Fraud at Local Bank

On December 12, 2002, the Delaware State Police obtained a federal conviction for bank fraud against a former bank employee. The subject was sentenced to two years federal incarceration and an additional five years federal probation. The Delaware State Police received information from a local…

Suspicious Activity Reports “Extremely Helpful” in Structuring Conviction Related to International Lottery Scheme

In what a federal prosecutor called “the most blatant currency structuring case” he had seen, a federal judge sentenced an 82-year-old man in March 2007 to 15 months in prison and ordered him to pay $110,000 in restitution to American victims of an international lottery scheme. The defendant had…

Proactive SAR Review Leads to Guilty Pleas in Structuring, Bank Fraud Case

A proactive SAR review task force identified a record that described structuring in an account of an individual who was subsequently found to not be involved in the suspected criminal activity. The investigators began focusing on the subject who caused the structured transaction noted in the SAR…

Securities Dealer Provides Details of High Yield Investment Program Scheme

Six defendants pled guilty and received prison time for defrauding investors in a case that started when a securities firm noticed suspect transactions and reported the activity to law enforcement. The defendants created a bogus investment scheme, marketed it over the Internet, and defrauded…

Attorney General’s Office Case Example (Tax Fraud)

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…