FinCEN alerts banks to $8bn in suspicious cross-border MSB payments
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent appeared in St. Cloud, Minnesota, alongside FBI, CMS, FTC and Justice Department officials to announce coordinated anti-fraud action. The substance for compliance teams is two FinCEN products: an alert on cross-border payments routed through U.S. money services businesses, and a notice on the exploitation of charities and nonprofits. Both land against a backdrop of Medicaid fraud prosecutions.
- FinCEN issued an alert on cross-border payment risks through U.S.-based money services businesses after institutions reported more than $8 billion in potentially suspicious wire payments from 2021 to 2025.
- A separate FinCEN notice addresses the exploitation of charities and nonprofits for terrorist financing, fraud and other illicit activity.
- The FBI executed search warrants and arrested four people in a 26-count indictment alleging intended Medicaid fraud over $41 million, with actual losses of $21.65 million.
- Officials cited a Minnesota Fraud Task Force backed by more than a thousand subpoenas and 40 warrants.