Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) played a critical role in the indictment and guilty plea of a weight-loss doctor. The doctor ostensibly ran a weight-loss clinic, but in reality orchestrated a scheme to provide prescriptions for cash. In fact, innocent patients noticed that the doctor’s office…
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A married couple structured millions of dollars through their retail cigarette business using multiple financial institutions and branches. The defendants’ businesses were dependent upon individuals purchasing the cigarettes for illicit tax-free sales in other states. To avoid scrutiny, the…
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…
In a case where investigators believe that as much as $7 million in losses may be realized, Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) records helped identify co-conspirators, accounts, and elements of a mortgage fraud scheme. Specifically, Suspicious Activity Reports described transactions related to the fraud in…
In a case initiated from a Suspicious Activity Report (SAR), investigators found perpetrators were operating two separate fraud schemes. The first scheme, a check-kiting fraud, was only possible because of the complicity provided by the chief defendant’s wife who worked at the bank where the…
Investigators looking at a drug trafficking organization were helped by Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) that a bank filed on an individual who laundered the illicit proceeds. Prosecutors charged that individual with hiding more than $800,000 belonging to an accused drug dealer involved in a…
Federal law enforcement and regulatory agencies conducted a securities fraud investigation where defrauded investors lost at least $32 million. Investors believed they were investing in coal mines and a huge and highly secretive gold transaction. Three individuals were convicted of running the…
In 2006, a Federal grand jury indicted several businesses and individuals, including mortgage brokers, on numerous charges of mail fraud, bank fraud, conspiracy to commit mail, wire and bank fraud and contempt of court in a nationwide scheme that purported to eliminate the mortgages of thousands…
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…
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network is issuing this advisory to U.S. financial institutions so that they may guard against threats of illicit Iranian activity related to money laundering, terrorist financing and weapons of mass destruction proliferation financing. The Financial Action Task…