FinCEN Announces Recipients of Its 11th Law Enforcement Awards Program

WASHINGTON-Last week, the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) recognized seven cases during its Law Enforcement Awards Program for effectively using Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) data to support criminal prosecutions and safeguard the U.S. financial system.

"These awards recognize the incredible difference law enforcement officers and prosecutors make through their use of BSA information," said FinCEN Director Andrea Gacki. "This work not only protects our country from serious crimes, but it is paying huge dividends for taxpayers, businesses, and our financial institution partners by identifying, combating, and even recovering the proceeds of illicit finance."

FinCEN recognized the combined efforts of law enforcement and the financial industry to support investigations and combat financial crime and other illicit activity. For this past year's program, FinCEN received 42 case nominations from 39 separate law enforcement agencies. The nominated cases involved review and analysis of over 16,000 BSA reports filed by more than 1,400 financial institutions, the largest number of financial institutions and BSA reports in the history of the awards program. The nominated cases resulted in 96 convictions, $1.1 billion dollars seized, and $347 million in restitution to help make victims whole.

FinCEN is constantly working to improve feedback loops between law enforcement and financial institutions through its Advisory Program, its issuance of Financial Trend Analyses, and its collaborative efforts such as the FinCEN Exchange Program and the Bank Secrecy Act Advisory Group (BSAAG)-a public-private partnership that convenes industry, regulators, and law enforcement for discussions regarding the administration of the BSA. FinCEN led the 63^rd semi-annual BSAAG plenary meeting last week at the Treasury Department.

***

Award Recipients

BSA data was critical to each of the cases summarized below. FinCEN plans to post summaries of all case nominations to its website in the coming weeks.

Fraud: The Federal Housing Finance Agency-Office of Inspector General (OIG), the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development-OIG, and the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI ) investigated two real estate companies that conspired to purchase real estate at fraudulently depressed short sale prices, costing mortgage loan holders millions of dollars in losses. The five defendants and their co-conspirators corrupted a process meant to assist homeowners facing foreclosure. A federal jury returned a guilty verdict against the primary defendant for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud, and related wire fraud counts.

Human Trafficking/Human Smuggling: The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), and IRS-CI launched an investigation into Backpage.com, an internet forum for prostitution ads that included ads depicting sex work for children. The investigation resulted in a settlement agreement in which $215 million in assets traceable to the forum's profits and previously seized by law enforcement from the forum and its agents will be forfeited to the United States. The forfeited assets will be available for a remission process to compensate the victims of the crime.

Drug Trafficking Organization Activity: The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of New Jersey and the U.S. Department of Justice's Money Laundering, Narcotics and Forfeiture Section (formerly known as the Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Section) investigated TD Bank and its parent company, which pleaded guilty in October 2024 and agreed to pay over $1.8 billion in penalties to resolve the Justice Department's investigation into BSA violations and money laundering. TD Bank's guilty pleas were part of a coordinated resolution with FinCEN and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, as well as the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. The penalties imposed totaled almost $3.1 billion. TD Bank became the largest bank in U.S. history to plead guilty to BSA program failures and the first U.S. bank to plead guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering. The guilty pleas included the largest penalty ever imposed under the BSA.

Transnational Criminal Organization Activity: In this Homeland Security Investigations case, a casino agreed to forfeit more than $130 million to settle criminal allegations that it conspired with unlicensed money transmitting businesses worldwide to transfer funds for the financial benefit of the casino. The settlement is believed to be the largest forfeiture by a casino based on admissions of criminal wrongdoing. As part of this case, 15 other defendants admitted to money laundering, unlicensed money transmitting, or other crimes with associated criminal penalties of over $7.5 million.

Countering Cartels: Drug Enforcement Administration agents uncovered a massive cartel financing scheme involving the Mexican oil and gas industry. The investigation revealed that Mexican drug cartels were making tens of billions of dollars annually through the smuggling of illicit oil and gas across the U.S. and Mexico border. In addition to this operation, Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control issued designations on the two most influential cartel players associated with these cartels, and FinCEN issued an alert associated with cartel oil and gas smuggling financial activities.

Cybercrime: The FBI led an investigation into an international, financially motivated sextortion and money laundering scheme involving cyberstalking, interstate threats, extortion, money laundering, and wire fraud. The six subjects and additional co-conspirators attempted to extort approximately $6.9 million from thousands of potential victims and successfully extorted approximately $1.9 million from those victims, using digital wallet accounts.

Corruption: USPIS investigated a subject who was conspiring to commit mail and bank fraud and aggravated identity theft. The conspiracy victimized more than 900 individuals, stealing more than 700 checks, totaling a face value of more than $5 million. Following a guilty plea, the subject was sentenced to 114 months in federal prison.

###