On April 22, 2023, coinciding with the Earth Day celebration, FinCEN issued a press release to remind financial institutions to remain vigilant in identifying and reporting suspicious activity related to environmental crimes. According to FinCEN, environmental crimes frequently involve transnational criminal activity related to several of FinCEN’s Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) National Priorities, including corruption, fraud, human trafficking, and drug trafficking.

FinCEN has previously published resources to help stakeholders identify and combat environmental crimes and associated illicit financial activity. These resources include the following:

A Financial Threat Analysis which contains information on wildlife trafficking threat patterns and trend information identified in BSA data; and
A FinCEN Notice which provides specific Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) filing instructions and highlights illicit financial activity related to several types of environmental crimes such as wildlife trafficking and illegal logging, fishing, or mining.

Read FinCEN’s press release here.

Adam Witmer

Adam Witmer is a speaker, author, and founder of the Compliance Cohort. Adam has taught hundreds of seminars and training sessions to thousands of bankers throughout the United States and teaches on all areas of regulatory compliance. Adam has written five e-books that he never published, hit a grizzly bear while driving in a National Park, and is an award winning photographer and musician (though he no longer takes photos nor plays any instruments). In his spare time, Adam can be found kayaking on the lake, doing taekwondo with his kids, working on his (project) house, or spending time with his family.

Website

Become a Free Member