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FinCEN Issues Red Flags for Trade-Based Laundering
By Colby Adams
printThe U.S. Treasury Department's financial intelligence unit issued guidance Thursday on how to spot and report transactions tied to trade-based money laundering, a type of crime on the rise. The department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) published the advisory based on instances of abuse in Central and South American trade. Between January 2004 and May 2009, over 17,000 regulatory suspicious activity reports (SARs) identified $276 billion in possible criminal transactions tied to trade, according to the bureau. FinCEN, which last warned on trade-based laundering in June 1999, called on financial institutions to be wary of international wire transfers received as...
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