Money Laundering Expose Based On FinCEN files and Suspicious Activity Reports

The news organization Buzzfeed has acquired a trove of FinCEN files and suspicious activity reports (SARs), and along with affiliated news groups, it intends to publish a series of article exposing, in the words of its headline, how Deadly Terror Networks And Drug Cartels Use Huge Banks To Finance Their Crimes. They promise a “never-before-seen picture of corruption and complicity — and how the government lets it flourish.” The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) is the Treasury Department agency charged with combating money laundering, terrorist financing, and other financial crimes. It makes SARs available to US law enforcement agencies and some foreign financial intelligence operations. The report claims it rarely cracks down on banks and forces them to shut the money laundering down, instead relying on deferred prosecution agreements, which include fines but no high-level arrests. The banks counter that criminal and terrorist organizations are constantly devising new means to disguise money laundries as legitimate operations.