FinCEN Files

The FinCEN Files are documents from the U.S. Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), that have been leaked to BuzzFeed News and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), and published globally on 20 September 2020.^[1]^[2] The 2,657 leaked documents include 2,121 suspicious activity reports (SARs)^[1]^[2] covering over 200,000 suspicious financial transactions between 1999 and 2017 valued at over US$2 trillion by multiple global financial institutions.^[1]

The BuzzFeed News report concludes that the documents appear to show that both the banks that filed the SARs and FinCEN had this financial intelligence but did little to stop activities such as money laundering.^[1] The SARs were generated by financial institutions in more than 170 countries that played a role in facilitating money laundering and other fraudulent crimes.^[1] Journalists around the world have criticized both the banks and the US government. The BBC stated it shows how the "world's biggest banks have allowed criminals to move dirty money around the world". BuzzFeed News claimed the files "offer an unprecedented view of global financial corruption, the banks enabling it, and the government agencies that watch as it flourishes."^[1]^[3]

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