In a case that started from a proactive review of SARs, an automobile dealership pleaded guilty to conducting transactions designed to avoid the filing of Currency Transaction Reports. Although the SAR only details activity that occurred in a period of twenty days, investigators found a pattern…
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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 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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
A SAR filed by a bank revealed that an individual had deposited over $44,000 to and withdrawn over $31,000 from his account in a one-month period.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…
In 2003, an insurance executive pled no contest and was found guilty on a single count of aggravated theft. The defendant admitted misappropriating money that was intended to pay medical claims for the local government’s self-insured health benefits plan. Acting as the health insurance agent for…
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…