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IRS Offshore Voluntary Compliance Initiative – FinCEN Waiver from Civil Money Penalties for Failure to Timely File Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (Form TD F 90-22.1)

This serves notice that the Director of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has granted a waiver from civil money penalties for violations of the Bank Secrecy Act, 31 U.S.C. 5314, and its implementing regulation, 31 C.F.R. Part 103.24, to persons who enter into settlement and…

Customer Due Diligence Requirements for Financial Institutions
Identity Thief Receives Nearly 4 Years in Prison

A suspect used “convenience checks” issued by credit card companies to steal nearly $1 million, travel internationally, and purchase expensive items and real estate. The suspect engaged in a scheme for five years in which he created 20 fake identities and more than nine bogus business entities…

SAR Filing Trips Up Card Thief

A Pennsylvania man was sentenced to 15 months in prison followed by 3 years probation for structuring bank transactions to prevent the IRS from learning about profits earned from his role in sports card theft. The man owned a company involved in the sale of sports cards and was found to be…

SARs Result in Sentencing of Family Members in Bankruptcy Fraud Case

Three family members pled guilty to charges including bankruptcy fraud, structuring, providing false statements, and mail fraud for their involvement in a bankruptcy fraud scheme that included structuring transactions and concealing funds from credit card companies and financial institutions,…

BSA Records Identify Accounts and Transactions Related to an Illegal Gambling Enterprise

In a case where Federal prosecutors stepped in to help local law enforcement, BSA records identified millions of dollars generated through an illegal gambling operation. State authorities had few tools to punish the defendants because the state charges were only misdemeanors. To shut down the…

SARs Help Investigators Stop Fraudsters in Elder Financial Exploitation Case

Investigators opened a case after receiving a call from a family friend of a wealthy elderly woman who suspected the woman was being taken advantage of financially. With this information the law enforcement officials proceeded to research BSA documents and found SARs describing structuring on…

SARs Lead to Serial Mortgage Fraud Offender

A SAR filed by a bank on a subject for orchestrating a series of structured transactions revealed that those transactions occurred while the subject was on probation for an earlier criminal offense. During proactive reviews of SARs, an analyst recognized the defendant’s name and forwarded the…

Suspicious Activity Report Describes in Great Detail Bank Embezzlement Scheme, Leads to Guilty Plea

A bank employee devised a scheme to embezzle funds from work through a complex scheme that lasted more than 2 ½ years. The scheme involved automated debit and credit transactions conducted through multiple accounts. The Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) filed on the theft details how the fraud…

Analysis of SAR Filings and CTRs Leads to Indictments of Criminal Organization

A U.S. Customs Service investigation in Houston of a criminal organization involved in the repackaging and exportation of stolen commercial baby formula was aided by an analysis of SAR filings and CTRs. The criminal network, which operated in several states, laundered their illicit profits…