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U.S. Investigators Mining BSA Data in Broad Crackdown on Islamic State: Sources
By Kira Zalan
printFederal regulators and law enforcement agencies are using Bank Secrecy Act data to identify financial transactions tied to Islamic State, the Sunni terrorist group operating in Syria and Iraq. The agencies are reviewing suspicious activity reports (SARs) linked to such transactions as ATM withdrawals near the Syrian border or within Yemen, according to multiple current and former U.S. officials who asked to remain anonymous. The effort to glean intelligence from transactional patterns comes as part of a multi-departmental mobilization to crack down on the group. In the U.S. Treasury Department, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) is developing typologies that...
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