NCJ Number
139516
Date Published
1992
Length
13 pages
Annotation
In July 1991, the Subcommittee on Oversight of the House Committee on Ways and Means requested the General Accounting Office (GAO) to examine how the Department of Treasury's Office of Financial Enforcement (OFE) processes civil penalty referrals for violations of the Bank Secrecy Act.
Abstract
Enacted in 1970, the Bank Secrecy Act requires the recording and reporting of certain transactions exceeding $10,000 that involve currency and monetary instruments. The GAO found that the number of referrals made by regulatory agencies declined, from 136 in 1986 to 26 in 1991. The GAO also determined that OFE did not process civil penalty referrals in a timely manner. An analysis of over 50 referrals awaiting resolution found periods of inactivity in many cases ranging from several months to over a year. The average time required to close a case involved 1.8 years. Staffing problems and workload management increased processing time. From 1985 through June 1992, OFE received 585 referrals for violations of the Bank Secrecy Act and recommended 49 penalties totaling $21,743,380. Civil penalty referrals were received from Internal Revenue Service examination and criminal investigations and from bank regulatory and law enforcement agencies. About 55 percent of all cases closed since 1985 resulted in letters of warning being sent, while 34 percent were closed with no contact. 1 table and 3 figures