The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) maintains a comprehensive database of financial records created in 1990 as an arm of the United States Department of the Treasury to combat money laundering. Their primary purpose is to gather information on the movement of large or suspicious amounts of money, and to increase the communication about that movement to various domestic and international law enforcement agencies, including the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Secret Service, the Internal Revenue Service, the Customs Service, and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.

All banks, casinos, brokerage firms, or financial institutions that transfer money must notify FinCEN of any cash transaction over $10,000 in value, as well as any other "suspicious" activity. An interesting side effect of this is that the FinCEN paperwork - in which a legal name must be given - is being used by casinos to catch some of the higher-volume blackjack card counters.

See also

• Currency transaction report
• Suspicious activity report

External links

• Official FinCEN website (http://www.fincen.gov/)
• Privacy Information (http://www.privacilla.org/government/fincen.html)