U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

News

Members of the media may email inquiries or interview requests to press@fincen.gov.

If you are not a member of the media, please visit the FinCEN contact page.

SAR Filings Reveal Methamphetemine Production Ring

The owner of a company that distributed various products to small independent convenience and grocery stores was sentenced to 188 months in prison after his conviction on drug, money laundering, and Title 31 charges. The company was distributing pallet-load quantities of psuedoephedrine to a…

Suspicious Activity Report Initiates Bank Failure Investigation

A Suspicious Activity Report facilitated the investigation of a large bank failure that received national attention due to its size and the related criminal actions. The subject of the investigation, a former loan officer with a bank, initiated a series of nominee loans. He funneled the proceeds…

Proactive SAR Review Leads to the Arrest of Army Officer and Recovery of Iraqi War Funds

A U.S. military officer used his official position to steal currency designated for war use, transferred the funds to the United States, and then spent that money on personal items. When the defendant conducted transactions with the stolen currency at financial institutions, those transactions…

Proactive Suspicious Activity Report Review Leads to Guilty Plea for Money Remitter Structuring Transactions

A case initiated through a SAR review team identified a money remitter structuring transactions through multiple banks and accounts. Although registered withFinCEN, he did not properly license his business with state authorities. The banks initially became suspicious when he used his personal…

Paralegal Found Guilty at Trial on Structuring Charges

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…

Bank Manager Steals Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars: Scam Even Targets Sister

In a case initiated based on the filing of SARs, a bank manager pled guilty to a nine-year fraud scheme to steal over a quarter of a million dollars from accounts of customers, including the bank manager’s sister, identified by the bank manager as individuals or businesses that would not miss…

Money Laundering Scheme Transferred Over $12 Million to South American Countries

Six people were convicted and sentenced for their involvement in a $12 million money laundering scheme. The scheme involved the wire transfers of drug proceeds to South American countries for the benefit of drug cartels.

The defendants deposited drug proceeds into more than 50 bank…

SAR Identifies Suspects Involved in a Nigerian Advance Fee Scam

Two suspects, a husband and wife, had been corresponding with individuals in Nigeria for several months concerning a transfer of $30 million from Nigeria to their bank account. The suspects, skeptical of the promises made by the foreign philanthropist, performed their own investigation via the…

Suspicious Activity Report Initiates Material Support of Terrorism Investigation

The Federal Bureau of Investigation initiated a Material Support of Terrorism investigation based on a Suspicious Activity Report filed by a bank detailing a series of overseas financial transactions totaling millions of dollars. Two of the participants in these transactions were a United States…

Suspicious Activity Reports Identify Transactions Linked to Embezzlement of a Tribal Authority

A U.S. district judge sentenced a financial manager to 10 years in custody for using two financial institutions to launder funds from an embezzlement he orchestrated while working for an Indian tribal government entity receiving Federal funds. He was charged with stealing more than $180,000 over…