Treasury flags $8B in suspicious foreign-directed transfers through US money services firms
The Trump administration uncovered what it says is more than $8 billion in potentially fraudulent cross-border wire payments that were made under foreign agents’ direction, issuing new guidelines for nonprofits who take foreign money, executing multiple FBI search warrants and building out a large-scale indictment.
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) within the Treasury Department said it identified suspicious wire payments from 2021 to 2025 that were sent through U.S.-based money services businesses at the direction of foreign agents.
"When greed meets negligence, the American people suffer," Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement to Fox News Digital. "Under President Trump and Vice President Vance’s leadership, Treasury stopped nearly $190 million in funds tied to overseas fraud and returned more than $100 million to U.S. victims. We are working with the White House Task Force to Eliminate Fraud to help prevent this kind of abuse from happening again, in Minnesota or anywhere else."
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At a Friday press conference, Bessent said: "In the weeks following my visit, Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, known as FinCEN, issued a geographic targeting order to trace criminal networks.
That diverts funds overseas and ensures that taxpayer dollars go to the American people, not terror groups like Al Shabaab."
He added that the Treasury Department has investigations in the U.S. and abroad into "Al-Shabaab, its networks and its enablers. Since the start of the Trump administration, FinCen data have also supported the law enforcement effort that led to the arrest and charging of 115 fraudsters, as well as 75 convictions and nearly 3,000 subpoenas across Minnesota."
Bessent said that on Thursday, "IRS-CI assisted with investigative activity at several sites suspected of fraud. I want to give a shout-out to our great officers at IRS-CI. They don't get much press, but they are quietly one of the most affected groups in the United States government for fighting fraud."
Bessent, FBI Director Kash Patel, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz and Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson held a news conference in Minnesota to detail the substantial fraud uncovered and FBI Minnesota's actions.
"This FBI follows the money," Patel said at the Friday press conference. "This FBI will put in prison anyone who commits fraud anywhere in the world against any American citizen. Thanks to President Trump, we finally have a commander-in-chief who prioritized the initiative to go after the fraudsters with the full force of government."
The Treasury Department issued a notice urging banks to scrutinize nonprofits’ donors, funding streams and ties to other groups and governments. FinCEN says the arrangements could obscure the ultimate recipients and potentially be exploited for money laundering or terrorist financing.
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The notice noted that bad actors commit fraud in three forms of abuse: sham charities allegedly diverting funds to illicit activity, charity-related fraud that enriches the people running the scheme, and embezzlement by insiders at legitimate organizations.
Salim Said, a co-conspirator in the Feeding Our Future case, was sentenced to 30 years in prison this week after being convicted on 21 counts tied to a scheme that defrauded a federal child nutrition program of $49 million.
At the end of last year, reports and social media coverage by Shirley exposed a network of daycare centers, like the "Quality Learing (sic) Center," that were allegedly fraudulent and operated mostly by Somali immigrants.
The reports sparked swift action from the administration, and former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem deployed DHS and ICE agents to the streets of Minneapolis to catch and deport Somali immigrants in the country illegally. The deployment sparked a clash between local residents and federal agents that exploded into violent riots across the Twin Cities.
The Treasury secretary has previously taken aim at fraud and bad actors funding nonprofit organizations in the U.S. In April, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) tightened tax-exempt reporting requirements in an effort to uncover nonprofit funding being used for "extremist activity" and "hiding fraud."
"Tax-exempt status is not immunity from scrutiny," Treasury Assistant Secretary and acting IRS chief counsel Ken Kies wrote in a statement. "If an organization receives public funds or tax-deductible donations, it should be prepared to show who controls the money and where it goes."
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Bessent has also been involved with the Department of Justice’s grand jury probe into the nonprofit network of Neville Roy Singham. Sources at Treasury told Fox News Digital that Bessent met with Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon and discussed Singham’s previously held accounts at the bank, which Singham used to distribute funds to a number of nonprofits.
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Singham, a 72-year-old American who sold his tech company for $785 million in 2017 and now lives in Shanghai, has funneled $278 million into the broad network of nonprofits since 2017, according to a Fox News Digital investigation. These groups regularly organize and participate in anti-ICE, anti-Israel and pro-Iran demonstrations.
Singham has not been charged, and the investigation at the Southern District of New York remains ongoing.