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FinCEN has updated its Beneficial Ownership Information FAQs to include new questions and updated information about reporting companies, beneficial ownership through trusts, and access to beneficial ownership information, among other topics. New and updated FAQs carry an April 18, 2024, date.

The Treasury Department yesterday announced that, in response to Iran's April 13 attack on Israel, OFAC has targeted 16 individuals and two entities enabling Iran’s UAV production, including engine types that power Iran’s Shahed variant UAVs, which were used in the April 13 attack. OFAC also designated five companies in multiple jurisdictions providing component materials for steel production to Iran’s Khuzestan Steel Company (KSC), one of Iran’s largest steel producers, or purchasing KSC’s finished steel products.

OFAC also sanctioned three subsidiaries of Iranian automaker Bahman Group, which have continued to materially support the IRGC and other entities designated pursuant to counterterrorism authorities, including Iran’s Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL). Bahman Group itself was concurrently designated for owning these entities.

For the names and identification information of the designated parties, see the April 18, 2024, BankersOnline OFAC Update.

The OCC has released a list of recent enforcement actions taken against national banks, federal savings associations, and individuals currently and formerly affiliated with them. Actions taken against national banks and federal savings associations include:

• A Formal Agreement with First FS & LA of Lorain (Lorain, Ohio) for unsafe or unsound practices, including those related to the failure of the board of directors and bank management to develop and implement an appropriate strategic plan; appropriately manage and control liquidity and interest rate risks; implement effective Bank Secrecy Act (“BSA”) /Anti-Money Laundering internal controls; and appoint a BSA Officer with the requisite skills and expertise to oversee the BSA program, and the bank’s violation of law, rule, or regulation, including a violation relating to conducting ongoing customer due diligence.
• A Cease and Desist Order against Heritage Bank, N.A. (Spicer, Minnesota), for unsafe or unsound practices, including those related to capital adequacy, capital and strategic planning, credit review, ongoing monitoring of the credit portfolio, liquidity and liquidity management practices, and the allowance methodology.
• A Formal Agreement with Minnstar Bank, N.A. (Lake Crystal, Minnesota), for unsafe or unsound practices, including those related to concentrations of credit, credit underwriting and administration, appraisals, allowance for credit losses, strategic planning, incentive compensation, capital planning, and liquidity risk management, and violations of law, rule, or regulation, including those relating to loans to executive officers, lending limits, and appraisals.

Actions against institution-affiliated parties included:

• An Order of Prohibition and for payment of a $40,000 civil money penalty (CMP) against Norman Desembrana, former operations senior manager at the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, lockbox facility of Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., Sioux Falls, South Dakota, for concealing a significant backlog of unprocessed customer checks.
• An Order of Prohibition and for payment of a $300,000 CMP against Gary Judd, former chairman and CEO, Sterling Bank and Trust, FSB, Southfield, Michigan, for failing to appropriately oversee the bank’s operation of its Advantage Loan Program or supervise bank insiders involved in the implementation of the Advantage Loan Program.
• An Order of Prohibition and for payment of a $400,000 CMP against Scott Seligman, an institution-affiliated party of Sterling Bank and Trust, FSB, Southfield, Michigan, for participating in the operation of the Advantage Loan Program, contributing to a poor compliance culture at the bank, and pressuring bank employees to quickly underwrite Advantage Loan Program loans.
• An Order of Prohibition against Jackie M. Snider, former AVP at a Sulphur, Oklahoma, branch of Vision Bank, N.A., Ada, Oklahoma, for misappropriating at least $95,430 via the diversion of funds from customers’ accounts and taking efforts to conceal such misappropriation.
• An Order of Prohibition against John Edmonds, former VP at JPMorgan Chase Bank N.A., Columbus, Ohio, based on his conviction for commodities fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud, commodities fraud, commodities price manipulation, and spoofing.
• An Order of Prohibition against Christian Trunz, former executive director at JPMorgan Chase Bank N.A., Columbus, Ohio, based on his conviction for spoofing and conspiracy to commit spoofing.

FinCEN has announced it has issued a Financial Trend Analysis focusing on patterns and trends identified in Bank Secrecy Act data linked to Elder Financial Exploitation (EFE), or the illegal or improper use of an older adult’s funds, property, or assets. FinCEN examined BSA reports filed between June 15, 2022 and June 15, 2023 that either used the key term referenced in FinCEN’s June 2022 EFE Advisory or checked “Elder Financial Exploitation” as a suspicious activity type. This amounted to 155,415 filings over this period indicating roughly $27 billion in EFE-related suspicious activity.

Financial institutions began filing BSA reports featuring the advisory’s key term on the same day that FinCEN published its 2022 advisory. FinCEN has continued to receive EFE BSA reports, averaging 15,993 per month between June 15, 2023, and January 15, 2024. Banks have submitted the vast majority of EFE-related BSA filings.

EFE typically consists of two subcategories: elder scams and elder theft. Elder scams, identified in approximately 80% of the EFE BSA reports that FinCEN analyzed, involve the transfer of money to a stranger or imposter for a promised benefit that the older adult does not receive. In elder theft, identified in approximately 20% of the reports, an otherwise trusted person steals an older adult’s assets, funds, or income. Among other conclusions, FinCEN’s analysis revealed that most elder scam-related BSA filings referenced “account takeover” by a perpetrator unknown to the victim; that adult children were the most frequent elder theft-related perpetrators; and that illicit actors mostly relied on unsophisticated means to steal funds that minimize direct contact with financial institution employees.

The Social Security Administration has published [89 FR 27472] a notice of a revision in the upper transactions limit to the upper subscription tier for the electronic Consent Based Social Security Number (SSN) Verification (eCBSV) service, to become effective for subscription payments made on or after April 22, 2024.

The top tier subscriber, making more than 25 million inquiries a year, will pay an annual fee of $8.25 million.

The CFPB has published in today's Federal Register two Consumer Financial Protection Circulars previously posted to its website.

• Adverse Action Notification Requirements and Proper Use of Sample Forms [89 FR 27361], released on the CFPB's website on September 19, 2023
• Deceptive Marketing Practices about the Speed or Cost of Sending a Remittance Transfer [89 FR 27357], released on the CFPB's website on March 27, 2024

OFAC has published a final rule in today’s Federal Register to remove its Zimbabwe Sanctions Regulations (part 541) from 31 C.F.R. chapter V, as a result of the termination of the national emergency on which the regulations were based. The removal of part 541 is effective today.

The Federal Trade Commission has published [89 FR 26760] a final rule with amendments to the Telemarketing Sales Rule (“TSR”) that, among other things, require telemarketers and sellers to maintain additional records of their telemarketing transactions, prohibit material misrepresentations and false or misleading statements in business to business (“B2B”) telemarketing calls, and add a new definition for the term “previous donor.” The amendments are being made to address technological advances and to continue protecting consumers, including small businesses, from deceptive or abusive telemarketing practices.

The amendments are effective May 16, 2024. However, compliance with 16 CFR 310.5(a)(2) — a recordkeeping requirement — is not required until October 15, 2024.

The Commission also published [89 FR 26798] a proposed rulemaking that would extend the coverage of the TSR to inbound telemarketing calls by consumers to technical support services—i.e., calls that consumers make in response to an advertisement through any medium or to a direct mail solicitation. The FTC said the proposed amendment is necessary in light of the widespread deception and consumer injury caused by tech support scams. The amendment would provide the Commission with the ability to obtain stronger relief in cases involving tech support scams, including civil penalties and consumer redress. Comments on the proposed amendments will be accepted through June 17, 2024.

The FDIC has published [89 FR 26881] a notice of its intent to terminate its receiverships of Firstier Bank (Louisville, CO) and Nova Bank (Berwyn, PA) on or after May 16, 2024.

The liquidation of the assets for each receivership has been completed. To the extent permitted by available funds and in accordance with law, the FDIC will be making a final dividend payment to proven creditors.

Yesterday, the Treasury Department reported that OFAC had designated 12 entities and ten individuals under Executive Order 14038. This action built on U.S. sanctions imposed in response to Belarus’s fraudulent August 2020 election, as well as President Alyaksandr Lukashenka’s support for Russia’s illegal full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The action sustains U.S. financial pressure on the Lukashenka regime for its continuing support for Russia’s war against Ukraine and the financial benefit it derives from this activity.

For the names and identification information of the designated individuals and entities, see BankersOnline's April 15, 2024, OFAC Update.