Suspicious Activity Reporting
A number of suspicious activity reporting (SAR) laws now require accountants to
report questionable financial transactions to the U.S. Treasury Department. Examples
of such transactions are ones suggestive of money laundering, bribes, or wire transfers
to terrorist organizations. Federal statutes that mandate SARs include sections of the
Annunzio-Wylie Anti-Money Laundering Act (1992), amendments to the Bank Secrecy Act of 1996, and several sections of the Patriot Act (2001). Institutions affected by these laws
include (1) banks, (2) money service businesses such as currency traders, (3) broker dealers,
(4) casinos and card clubs, (5) commodity traders, (6) insurance companies, and (7) mutual
funds. Over the years, such filings have enabled the federal government to investigate a
wide number of criminal activities, gather evidence, and in some cases, repatriate funds
sent overseas. Testimony to the importance of suspicious activity reporting is the growth
of SAR filings—from about 62,000 reports in 1996 to over 1.6 million of them in 2008.