Enforcement: FinCEN issues penalty for failure to register as MSB
A civil money penalty, without the respondents admitting or denying the allegations, has been agreed by FinCEN and Altima, Inc, of Norcross, Georgia, USA.
FinCEN says that it is satisfied that grounds exist to assess a civil money penalty based on Altima's operations as an independent money transmitter from November 2006 to December 2010. FinCEN says that Altima was engaged in the business of transferring funds and received payment for so doing, and that payments were made both within the USA and abroad. It also brought proceedings against its owner.
That, says FinCEN brings it within the definition of money transmitter within the definitions of the Bank Secrecy Act and money transmitters are one of the forms of money services business to which that Act and regulations under it apply.
Altima was a one-man operation. Babak Safarriyeh a.k.a. "Bobby Safari" was (as Americans like to term them) the company's President, Chief Executive Office, Founder and sole shareholder. He was also its only employee.
Altima was dissolved on 6 September 2010. Its money transmitter's licence, issued by authorities in Georgia, somehow remained in force, expiring on 31 December 2010. No explanation is given as to how a licence can remain in force after a company is dissolved.
Safarriyeh did register the business with FinCEN in November 2006 but he did not renew it until (curiously) November 2010, says FinCEN. There was a lapse in registration of some two years. The State of Georgia fined the company USD6,000 for that lapse.
The question of the FinCen registration and the State licence are separate issues.
Further, FinCEN found that the company had no counter-money laundering policies and procedures in place and therefore "was unable to adequately determine that respond to the risks of being used to facilitate potential money laundering and the potential of financing terrorist activities."
FinCEN says that it found evidence that funds were transmitted for customers in Iran in breach of US sanctions.
Safarriyeh, without admitting or denying any of FinCEN's findings consented to the payment of a civil penalty of USD5,000
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