President Obama is expected to sign into law a measure that would allow the U.S. Treasury Department to rely on state examinations of nonbank financial institutions, including money services businesses.
A Mexican currency exchange house that registered with the U.S. Treasury Department manipulated currency declaration reports in efforts to launder tens of millions of dollars of drug profits, according to court documents.
Money services businesses are jumping through a new hoop to prove they have adequate anti-money laundering programs: in response to demands from banks, they are turning over copies of the independent reviews of their programs meant for regulators.
The release of the long anticipated Bank Secrecy Act/Anti-Money Laundering Examination Manual for Money Services Businesses has left many regulators, money services businesses and banks struggling to understand what it means for them. Here are some insights into implementing the manual.
The Internal Revenue Service is understaffed and unable to effectively conduct Bank Secrecy Act examinations on the thousands of non-bank financial companies for which it has oversight responsibility, according to compliance professionals.
The question for MSBs is whether these actions now constitute new minimum standards for all MSBs, regardless of size and business model.
Sigue, based in San Fernando, Calif., will forfeit $15 million and spend $9.7 million to upgrade its AML program as part of a deferred prosecution agreement with the Justice Department. Fortent Inform first reported the record penalty on January 11.
John Imhoff, the deputy chief of the IRS criminal investigations unit, speaks about the divisions efforts to investigate tax and money laundering-related narcotics cases and its struggles to get the most out of its resources.
The agency is not checking names against a comprehensive terrorist watch list, and is slowed by a manual review process, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration said.
The U.S. Internal Revenue Service and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network have created a working group to examine an IRS criminal investigation division practice of sending letters to bank customers identified in suspicious activity reports.
The U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) named Eileen Mayer, a former federal prosecutor who has extensive experience with Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) issues, to lead its main investigative arm.
Jewelry dealers left an AML seminar last week in New York with unanswered questions about their Bank Secrecy Act responsibilities. The IRS representative who led the session said she couldn't give certain answers in part because she doesn't yet know the particulars of the industry.
More coordination between the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is needed in combating money laundering among non-bank financial institutions, according to a report issued by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) on Dec. 15.