Treasury Flags More Than $8 Billion in Suspicious Wire Transfers Made at Foreign Agents' Direction, as Bessent and Patel Detail the Minnesota Fraud Push
FinCEN says the payments ran through U.S. money services businesses from 2021 to 2025. Treasury also issued a notice urging banks to scrutinize nonprofits that take foreign money. The $8 billion is described as potentially fraudulent, not proven.
The Treasury Department says it has found billions in suspicious money moving out of the country, Fox News reports.
The finding. The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, known as FinCEN, said it identified more than $8 billion in potentially fraudulent cross-border wire payments from 2021 to 2025. The payments went through U.S.-based money services businesses at the direction of foreign agents. Fox says the administration is also executing multiple FBI search warrants and building a large indictment. "When greed meets negligence, the American people suffer," Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox News Digital.
The numbers. Bessent said Treasury has stopped nearly $190 million tied to overseas fraud and returned more than $100 million to U.S. victims. He said FinCEN data have supported the arrest and charging of 115 people in Minnesota, 75 convictions and nearly 3,000 subpoenas, and that a FinCEN order was meant to trace networks sending money abroad, including to terror groups such as Al Shabaab.
The press event. Bessent, FBI Director Kash Patel, Medicare and Medicaid chief Dr. Mehmet Oz and FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson held a news conference in Minnesota on Friday. "This FBI follows the money," Patel said. A related Fox video says Bessent announced a whistleblower reward of up to $30,000 for tips that lead to fraud convictions or enforcement actions.
The nonprofits. Treasury also issued a notice urging banks to look closely at nonprofits' donors, funding sources and ties to other groups and governments. FinCEN says such arrangements can hide the final recipients and be used for money laundering or terror financing.
The court record. Fox notes that Salim Said, a co-conspirator in the Feeding Our Future case, was sentenced this week to 30 years in prison after a conviction on 21 counts tied to a scheme that took $49 million from a child nutrition program.
Note for readers: the $8 billion is a federal estimate of potentially fraudulent payments, and Fox does not say how much will be proven. The numbers on arrests and convictions come from Bessent.