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In a case jump-started from an international law enforcement alert, investigators searched BSA records for a drug trafficking investigation and found a number of SARs describing international wire transfers. Previously, a local drug task force had identified the ringleader, but only as a low-level…

A New Hampshire bank filed a SAR on a group of individuals who were cashing numerous checks from a local salvage company for amounts under $10,000. Based on this SAR, an investigation was initiated by IRS-CI. During the course of the investigation, it was discovered that the men cashing the checks…

A SAR filed by a bank revealed that an individual had deposited over $44,000 to and withdrawn over $31,000 from his account in a one-month period.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 had…

The Federal Bureau of Investigation opened an investigation based upon information in SARs filed by banks indicating significant check kiting activity. The subjects operated a number of small businesses in the area. Over the course of approximately two years, the subjects conducted a check kite…

Case summary: In a proactive use of CTRs, the financial intelligence director with the Manhattan district attorney's office has identified hundreds of businesses that are using check cashers rather than banks as a means of evading Federal, State, and local taxes. The businesses have created, in…

Case summary: A woman was sentenced in 2010 after pleading guilty to a structuring charge resulting from the theft of funds from her elderly mother. Although the defendant received a relatively light sentence, the assistant U.S. attorney prosecuting the case noted that structuring was the only…

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…

Agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives conducted an investigation into the illegal sale of cigarettes that led to the indictment of 13 defendants. Cigarettes that were purchased in a low tax state were sold in a high tax state without the payment of taxes in either…

A routine Suspicious Activity Report review by geographic zip codes led to the discovery of a retail store operator operating as a subagent for a licensed money services business. The preliminary investigation by the filing institution, along with a follow-up investigation by the Drug Enforcement…