On October 3, FinCEN Acting Director Jamal El-Hindi issued a statement regarding anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism compliance. According to Acting Director El-Hindi, two recent actions against casinos represent failure to (i) adequately train staff at every level in the organization; and (ii) properly file – or file at all – Suspicious Activity Reports and Currency Transaction Reports. Still, Acting Director El-Hindi acknowledged that casinos in general have improved their AML compliance efforts. Acting Director El-Hindi stated that FinCEN will continue to work with casinos on their compliance efforts, and cautioned that “[a] good compliance culture is one where doing the right thing is rewarded, and where ‘looking the other way’ has consequences.”
