By laundering money through financial transactions, criminal enterprises may attempt to conceal the source of their illegal profits. White collar criminals are generally very intelligent and may have a large amount of cash resources at their disposal to invest in their illegal enterprises. Furthermore, the modus operandi of an organization that is experienced at laundering money may change frequently so as to hide their activities from authorities. As such, the government maintains a sophisticated financial intelligence network to discover the actions of those involved, and bring criminals that launder money to justice.
Do you need a lawyer for laundering money?
Contact Fuerst Ittleman.
The U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) investigate the possibility of criminal activity by individuals, businesses and organizations through identifying those that exhibit suspicious transactional patterns. The primary business model criminals utilize for laundering money are Money Service Businesses (MSB’s).
The core MSB’s authorities investigate include businesses that perform the following services:
• Money transmitters – Transmit funds both domestically and internationally.
• Check cashers – Provide check cashing services.
• Currency exchangers – Fee based charges for the exchange of currency.
• Money order issuers – Redemption, issuance or sales of money orders.
MSB’s are required to file Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) with FinCEN on suspicious financial transactions. SAR’s provide authorities with information that may uncover evidence of illegal money laundering activities. SAR’s also enable authorities to measure and identify patterns and behaviors of suspected perpetrators and possibly reveal organizations involved in laundering money for criminal enterprises. SAR’s assist in identifying the following actions of businesses that launder money:
• Placement – The first and highest risk engagement of laundering money is in the physical transaction of cash into a financial institution.
• Layering – Is the actual process of transferring the illegal cash through various financial transactions to make the originating source of the funds difficult to trace. In order to keep the transactions concealed criminal enterprises may choose to set up offshore accounts.
• Integration – Once the funds have been processed through financial transactions, a money launderer may then introduce the funds back in to the mainstream American economy through a transaction which appears legitimate.
Andrew S. Ittleman, Esq., of Fuerst Ittleman, is a member of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, the National Money Transmitters Association, and is a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist. Mr. Ittleman and the firm’s managing partner, Mitchell Fuerst, Esq, are experienced at handling complex criminal cases involving any aspect of laundering money.
Do you need a lawyer for laundering money?
Contact Fuerst Ittleman.
