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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 the…

A retail store owner, who operated an unlicensed hawala (a form of an informal value transfer system), was sentenced to multiple months in prison and several years’ probation. The defendant pled guilty to failure to register as a money services business as required by FinCEN and to filing a false…

Case summary: In a key decision, a defendant went to trial after pleading not guilty to two counts of structuring. Notably, in this case, prosecutors did not bring money laundering charges against the defendant because there was no indication that the structured currency resulted from any illegal…

Two SARs filed by a central Florida bank resulted in the initiation of a money laundering investigation of a fraudulent securities dealer operating a prime bank fraud scheme. The SARs reported unusual account activity and international wire transfers in the tens of millions of dollars. The case…

An investigation of a possible violation of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act was initiated following the filing of a SAR by a bank in New York. The SAR stated that an unnamed bank vice president in charge of the funds transfer program manipulated four payments to the Sudan totaling $…

A federal judge has ordered more than 24 years of prison time for a former loan officer who was found guilty on all eight counts of an indictment charging conspiracy, bank fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering. Several financial institutions identified unusual transactions related to the…

BSA records helped identify co-conspirators, accounts, and elements of a mortgage fraud scheme that may total as much as $7 million dollars in losses. SAR filings described transactions related to the fraud in both personal and business accounts belonging to the defendant in the case, and CTRs…

Case summary: A jewelry store owner who was previously convicted of laundering funds for drug dealers was caught again accepting currency from drug traffickers in exchange for jewelry. In a sting operation, the defendant accepted approximately $30,000 in cash from an undercover IRS agent in…

In 2003, four individuals, previously convicted of charges related to a multi-million dollar real estate scheme, were ordered to pay over $1 million in restitution to reimburse victims of their crimes. According to court documents, a real estate investor and an attorney arranged for the proceeds of…

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…