Newsroom

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…

In early February 2002, money-transfer agents in 14 states were raided by federal agents to stop alleged illegal wiring of millions of dollars to Iraq. Twenty-nine (29) search warrants on businesses and individuals were used, allowing law enforcement agents to seize documents and records. The…

Four federal law enforcement agencies coordinated an investigation of a long-running fraud conspiracy that netted its participants more than $15 million in illicit proceeds. The ringleader, a retired financial executive, and a friend concocted a scheme to use nominee buyers to purchase greater…

Case summary: A lawyer and his paralegal assistant devised a scheme to defraud multiple credit card companies through a bankruptcy filing as a means to fund a real estate purchase. The pair structured the fraudulent proceeds through multiple banks to disguise the funds' origins. Although the…

A series of CTRs proved crucial in identifying bank accounts used to hide proceeds obtained through insurance fraud. The fraud involved a contractor who misrepresented the number of workers in his temporary employment service. Authorities used BSA data to identify assets belonging to perpetrators.…

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 of…

The United States Secret Service, New York Field Office, seized over $5.3 million from a correspondent account for a bank headquartered in Nigeria. Investigative leads derived from Bank Secrecy Act data determined that this account was actually owned by the Nigerian bank and operated by the bank’s…

In order to satisfy fines and restitution ordered as a result of an earlier scheme, two defendants began a new multi-state advertising campaign scheme to attract buyers (mostly elderly) of non-existent certificates of deposits.As part of the scheme, one of defendants rented office space in one…

Information gleaned from a review of SARs filed by financial institutions identified two brothers who are under investigation for operating an illegal money remitter business. USCS agents have documented in excess of $12 million being wired to foreign locations, primarily Singapore and Indonesia,…

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 SARs…