The Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN)announced today that Trump Taj Mahal Associates (TTMA) has paid a civil money penalty of$477,000 for failing to file reports required by the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA). TTMA islocated in Atlantic City, New Jersey, where it operates the Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort.
The $477,000 settlement amount is for BSA violations which occurred at the casino fromApril 1990 through December 1991. The violations are based on failures to file CurrencyTransaction Report by Casino forms (CTRCs) within the time period prescribed by the BSA.TTMA was cited for these BSA violations as the result of an Internal Revenue Service (IRS)compliance examination.
Settlement of the final penalty amount was influenced by TTMA’s otherwise laudableBSA compliance programs and its cooperation with Treasury Department Officials during thecasino’s IRS examination and final settlement of the matter with FinCEN.
During the 12 years that casinos have been required to comply with Treasury’santi-money laundering requirements, the industry has experienced dramatic growth andexpansion. Today, close to $500 billion a year is wagered at casinos in the United States.
In announcing the penalty, FinCEN’s Director Stanley E. Morris, indicated that BSAcompliance by casinos is essential to Treasury’s efforts against money laundering andother types of financial crime. "It is Treasury’s intention to ensure thatcasinos -- including the ones located in the newer gaming jurisdictions -- are complyingwith Treasury’s preventive programs," Morris said. "Casinos arecash-intensive businesses, and many offer a wide variety of financial services, similar to banks. Without effective safeguards, they may be vulnerable to money laundering."
Director Morris also commended the IRS’s Examination unit in Mays Landing, NJ forits BSA examination of TTMA and its attention to BSA compliance by the casinos located inAtlantic City, NJ.
The BSA requires casinos and other financial institutions to file reports of cashtransactions in excess of $10,000 and to institute preventive compliance programs tosafeguard against abuse of its financial services by casino customers. The reporting andrecordkeeping information required by the BSA are extremely useful to thegovernment’s efforts in criminal, tax and regulatory investigations and proceedings.
Today’s penalty is the twelfth levied by Treasury against casinos in AtlanticCity, New Jersey (NJ). With this penalty, Treasury has collected almost $2.2 million incivil penalties against the 12 casinos in Atlantic City over the past five years.