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…
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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A SAR filed by a bank revealed that an individual had deposited over $44,000 to and withdrawn over $31,000 from his account in a one-month period.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, 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…
Through a proactive review of SARs, a Federal agent identified records detailing structured transactions, unusual withdrawals, and unexplained wire transfers. The subsequent investigation uncovered over $2 million in cash and wire transfers from a drug-related money laundering conspiracy…
In a case started by a Suspicious Activity Report review team, investigators charged a restaurant owner with structuring bank deposits. The subject had been known to law enforcement for some time, and local authorities suspected him of participating in illegal activity. The resulting…