Company on the Move: FinCEN, Law Enforcement Awards
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) held its third annual Law Enforcement Awards ceremony on May 9 at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. FinCEN presented awards to law enforcement agencies that use Bank Secrecy Act reporting provided by financial institutions in their criminal investigations. The program includes six award categories. The 2017 award recipients were:
SAR Review Task Force: New York State Police. The New York State Police Special Investigations Unit at the Financial Crimes Unit identified suspicious transactions occurring in the Hudson Valley Region indicative of money laundering as part of Suspicious Activity Report review initiatives.
Transnational Organized Crime: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The FBI initiated an investigation after receiving a referral from local law enforcement regarding an individual suspected of carrying out various fraud and money laundering schemes.
Transnational Security Threats: FBI. The agency used a high volume of sensitive financial information over several years during the course of its investigation into a criminal organization moving hundreds of millions of U.S. dollars to support foreign nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
Cyber Threats: Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI). A multiyear, multi-agency investigation, led by IRS-CI focused on several targets selling narcotics on the dark web and distributing them throughout the U.S. through the U.S. Postal Service.
Significant Fraud: Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS). DCIS initiated a long-term investigation based on structuring and excessive credit card charges identified by multiple financial institutions on a single individual.
Third-Party Money Launderers: Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). Over the course of 18 months, HSI investigators utilized an extensive volume of sensitive financial information to assist in their investigation into a large-scale illegal third-party money laundering organization.
