You may have heard of a movie called “Sound of Freedom,” which topped the box office earlier this month. Whether you’ve seen it or not, it focuses on the sensitive topic of child sex trafficking. While there has been some controversy surrounding this film, it isn’t the first to touch on this topic. What it has done is shined a little bit more light on the issue of human smuggling/trafficking, in general.
So, what does that have to do with the banking industry? Plenty. Just like the drug trade, human trafficking/smuggling is a big problem, and sadly it’s more common than most people may think. FinCEN has put out a couple of Advisories (the most recent in 2020) on this over the years 1) to alert financial institutions to the issue and 2) to help them identify these types of illegal activity. Since financial institutions are, in many ways, the government’s eyes and ears when it comes to suspicious and/or potentially illegal activity, human trafficking and human smuggling should be factored into your BSA/AML Program.
Published
2023/07/18