FinCEN Announces Annual BSA Awards
It's basically the Oscars for BSA. Once a year, FinCEN recognizes how those SARs financial institutions file materially help law enforcement officers solve crimes. For example, in one of seven cases highlighted this year, it went down like this: there was a law firm that was targeting distressed homeowners with false promises of loan modification, generating significant upfront fees. Law enforcement officials' investigation led to a search warrant for the law office, resulting in the seizure of over 200 boxes of evidence and the indictment of six individuals on charges of mail fraud, wire fraud, telemarketing fraud, and money laundering. After an initial court hearing, the subjects were released pending trial. While the case was awaiting a trial date, not all the suspects were done doing their deeds, apparently. What the suspect didn't count on was the observant eye of an employee at a Utah credit union. [5/22/20]
