Fraud: Madoff case proves fiction of FinCEN position
When US money laundering regulator and FIU FinCEN withdrew its Draft Final Rule in relation to "hedge funds" they had an explanation. It's lucky Americans don't get irony. Will FinCEN try find out whether any bank made suspicious transaction reports whilst the fraud was being committed using the bank accounts they operate?
Comment from FinCEN spokesman as the Draft Final Rule published in 2002 under the USA PATRIOT Act was withdrawn in November 2008 having never been implemented showed that FinCEN thinks that someone knows what hedge funds are up to and it's not necessary for the regulator / FIU to find out directly.
Steve Hudak of FinCEN told the Washgton Post that, because funds use bank accounts "We do have a line of sight on these transactions."
Go on then, Steve: go and find the USD50,000,000,000 million that Madoff has admitted to the FBI that he has defrauded and which, by definition, has been laundered through those bank accounts.
And whilst you are at it, find out whether any of those banks ever made a suspicious transaction report relating to the Madoff accounts.
After all, you don't get a much more proximate predicate crime than it taking place right in the actual bank accounts under review.
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