
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) issued on December 22 a Financial Trend Analysis regarding Bank Secrecy Act (“BSA”) filings during the period of March to October 2022 (the “Report”) reflecting financial activity by Russian oligarchs the time of Russia’s unprovoked military invasion of Ukraine. This publication also refers to three prior alerts issued by FinCEN highlighting red flags on Russian oligarchs, high-ranking officials, and sanctioned individuals, on which we blogged here, here, and here. FinCEN published the Report pursuant to the Anti-Money Laundering Act’s requirement that FinCEN periodically publish threat pattern and trend information derived from BSA filings.
Overall, FinCEN found that BSA data filed on financial transactions of Russian oligarchs, high-ranking officials, sanctioned individuals, and their family members in 2022 showed transactional patterns indicative of corruption and sanctions evasion, including:
- the movement or transfer of funds or ownership of assets and trusts;
- the purchase of high-value goods or property; and
- changes in financial flows with links to property or companies in the United States.
Continue Reading Russian Oligarchs and Suspicious Financial Flows: A FinCEN Analysis