In April 2002, predicated by numerous SAR filings by two large banks, the FBI initiated an investigation into an investment scam. The SARs were filed on numerous personal and business accounts with no obvious relationships to one another. Bank personnel eventually linked all accounts through the…
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.
On December 12, 2002, the Delaware State Police obtained a federal conviction for bank fraud against a former bank employee. The subject was sentenced to two years federal incarceration and an additional five years federal probation. The Delaware State Police received information from a local…
Four individuals involved in the distribution and sale of marijuana were sentenced to prison terms ranging 12 to 21 months followed by up to 36 months probation. These sentences resulted from guilty pleas by the targets on one count each of money laundering for the manner in which they handled…
In January 2002, an investigation was initiated, subsequent to receiving SARs, into the operation of an unlicensed money remitter.
A foreign bank account, containing approximately $3 million, was frozen at the request of USCS agents. A federal search warrant was also executed at the…
Information gleaned from a review of SARs filed by financial institutions identified two brothers who are under investigation for operating an illegal money remitter business. USCS agents have documented in excess of $12 million being wired to foreign locations, primarily Singapore and Indonesia…
The former head of an investment firm was sentenced to nearly five years in prison as a result of a guilty plea to one felony count each for mail fraud and filing a false tax return, in a $146 million dollar scheme that targeted senior citizens. The subject pled guilty for his role in the…
A joint investigation conducted by the IRS/CID, DEA, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) was initiated by an analysis of SARs and CTRs filed by banks in Ohio. Two SARs led investigators to accounts that had over $1 million of cash deposits. A search warrant for the defendant’s…
Three family members pled guilty to charges including bankruptcy fraud, structuring, providing false statements, and mail fraud for their involvement in a bankruptcy fraud scheme that included structuring transactions and concealing funds from credit card companies and financial institutions,…
On October 7, 1999, a man and woman, their lawyer and three private investigators in their employ were arrested for alleged involvement in an elaborate conspiracy. The conspiracy included bilking millions of dollars worth of goods from a food bank, burning buildings for insurance, stalking, and…
The Pennsylvania (Pa.) Office of Attorney General’s Asset Forfeiture and Money
Laundering Section conducted proactive targeting research on SARs that initiated a Pa. State Grand Jury Money Laundering investigation on two suspects.
FinCEN’s Gateway Program was utilized by the Pa.…