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#3394 - 08/01/01 02:35 PM Suspicious Activity Report
BankerMama Offline
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Am I correct in interpreting Bank Secrecy to REQUIRE us to file a SAR when an employee steals from the bank no matter what the amount.

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General Discussion
#3395 - 08/02/01 04:43 AM Re: Suspicious Activity Report
matthewcompliance Offline
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Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 59
ventura,CA,USA
Hi Bwest,

Yes you are correct a report MUST be made and I would advise that you should also ensure that both the offence and a copy of the report filed should be made available to your board.

Are you contemplating a criminal prosecution if not have you considered your potential moral obligation to advise local law enforcement in an effort to prevent repetition of a similar offence elsewhere?

Matthew Read
Compliance Officers Association, Privacy Officers Association, AACFE,MICM,SHRM.


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#3396 - 08/01/01 08:42 PM Re: Suspicious Activity Report
La. Lady Offline
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You are absolutely correct!
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#3397 - 08/01/01 09:42 PM Re: Suspicious Activity Report
SMQ, CRCM Offline
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And it would be good to also file a copy of SAR with FBI, especially if you are in a small town where you might not want the local police discussing your loss at the grocery store. The FBI seems to get involved in all bank crimes and the sooner the better, also more discreet. A SAR sent to FinCEN can take 6 months or more to get to the proper FBI office.

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#3398 - 08/02/01 01:14 AM Re: Suspicious Activity Report
Don_Narup Offline

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Posts: 3,708
Las Vegas Nevada
The FBI is swamped with bank employee theft and other frauds. You can send a report, but the last I heard was, in Los Angeles Calif. unless the amount was over $1,000,000 the FBI office won't investigate it.
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#3399 - 08/02/01 02:20 PM Re: Suspicious Activity Report
SMQ, CRCM Offline
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Between the lines
Don,

What timimg! I rec'd a confirmation on a SAR filing this morning from the FBI - Mississippi. In short, they are swamped and will not investigate anything, including employee fraud, below $25,000. I guess we should file anyway and let each state notify us of their limits. I still think it is better in very small communities, to report employee matters to the FBI rather than the local police; since almost everyone in a small town is related by birth or marriage and there is too much risk to the bank.

Is it possible that the regulators will change reporting thresholds since all this reporting seems to be having a negative impact? Look at the FinCen newsletters and you will see that the number of reports is increasing significantly each year. I don't think that it is all because of new crimes, I believe it is because our regulators are pushing banks to report everything.

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#3400 - 08/02/01 02:40 PM Re: Suspicious Activity Report
David Dickinson Offline
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Central City, NE
Part of the revisions from the old Criminal Referral Form to the new SAR was that I only have to file 1 to FinCEN. They will then forward the info. to all that need to know. CAnderson suggested that bwest forward the SAR to the FBI. Why? Why increase your burden?
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#3401 - 08/02/01 03:00 PM Re: Suspicious Activity Report
Andy_Z Offline
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David you are absolutely right. We file it once and it becomes available in a searchable database by all the law enforcement agencies granted access.

But, in the real world I have been asked for courtesy copies and for copies to be sent to XYZ if I wanted faster action, etc.

As to limits, I believe they exist. If it isn't over $X it isn't going to be reviewed because of the way they have to prioritize. (That is where the database should do some aggregation for them. That may not be in use though, as it should be.) I don't believe any of those agencies would publicize what "limits" they may have or where. We know when a SAR is and is not required and those are the limits that matter. It is depressing that we do all this filing and see so little action. But I have had one or two calls on SARs filed that came as a result of database searches. So they may be used more than we realize. I can hope anyway.

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#3402 - 08/02/01 03:31 PM Re: Suspicious Activity Report
SMQ, CRCM Offline
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Between the lines
David,

I am only suggesting an additional filing in the case of employee fraud, and that to the FBI rather than the local police as suggested by Matthew compliance. The reason being that it can take a minimum of 6 mos. for FinCEN to forward to local FBI and then you may have lost your window of opportunity.

As Andy stated, in the real world, those courtesy copies can really help your own bank. For example, in a similar situation (read as been there--done that), the FBI told the bank that if the bank had filed a "courtesy copy" directly with the FBI, that bank would probably have benefitted from recent action by the FBI, but they received the report from FinCEN too late to act.

Additionally, the quicker the dirty banker gets reported, the fewer banks he will affect!

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#3403 - 08/02/01 03:35 PM Re: Suspicious Activity Report
BankerMama Offline
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Thanks to everyone for their help. It's a shame to have to go to such lengths for such a small employee theft. It would be great if the requirement to report all insider crimes would be reviewed.
Can anyone give me the FinCEN address to mail it?

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#3404 - 08/02/01 06:13 PM Re: Suspicious Activity Report
SMQ, CRCM Offline
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Between the lines
Your welcome, and you're right.

Address on last page of 5-page SAR form, try http://www.treas.gov/fincen/forms.html

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#3405 - 08/04/01 06:58 PM Re: Suspicious Activity Report
Lucy Griffin Offline

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SAR reporting serves several purposes. One, of course, is to trigger an investigation of possible or known crimes. When the FBI says it isn't interested, this can get discouraging.

But the other purpose is to create a data base of suspected crimes and suspected criminals. In this respect, whether the FBI plans to investigate a specific SAR is less significant. The important thing is to get the information into the data base where it can be used for other purposes -- including alerting other financial institutions.


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