How to Report Money Laundering as a Citizen or Business

How you report money laundering depends on who you are. A private citizen submits a tip to the FBI at tips.fbi.gov or through a local field office. A bank, credit union, money services business, casino, or broker-dealer files a Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. A business that receives more than $10,000 in cash files IRS Form 8300. Federal law protects everyone in those categories from being sued or fired for reporting, and in some cases pays a share of what the government collects.

Reporting as a Private Citizen

If you have no formal filing duty, the most direct route is the FBI’s Electronic Tip Form at tips.fbi.gov.¹ You can also call your nearest FBI field office. The FBI works money laundering cases connected to drug trafficking, human trafficking, public corruption, organized crime, and terrorism financing.²

Include as much detail as you can: names of the people or businesses involved, what you observed, approximate dates, locations, and any documentation you have. You don’t have to prove that money laundering occurred. Investigators will decide what to do with the tip, and even partial information can connect to an existing case.

Depending on the conduct, other federal agencies handle overlapping pieces. IRS Criminal Investigation focuses on tax fraud, unreported illegal income, and Bank Secrecy Act violations.³ Homeland Security Investigations handles cross-border laundering, trade-based schemes, and cryptocurrency-related financial crime.⁴ A tip to the FBI is usually enough; those agencies coordinate.

Filing a Suspicious Activity Report

Banks, credit unions, money services businesses, casinos, broker-dealers, and other covered financial institutions must file a SAR when they detect a transaction that may involve money laundering or another financial crime. A common trigger is structuring: repeated deposits kept just under the $10,000 currency transaction reporting threshold.⁵

SARs are filed electronically through FinCEN’s BSA E-Filing System. Users file on behalf of the institution through an approved account, and the system generates a tracking number once the report is accepted.⁶ Save that confirmation as proof of compliance.

The 30/60-Day Deadline

A SAR must be filed within 30 calendar days of first detecting the suspicious activity. If no suspect has been identified by then, the institution has an additional 30 days to identify one. Filing cannot be delayed beyond 60 calendar days from initial detection for any reason.⁵

Banks must keep a copy of every filed SAR, along with supporting documentation, for at least five years from the filing date.⁷ Label and store those records so they can be produced if investigators or examiners follow up.

Writing the Narrative

The narrative section is the most important part of the report. Describe the specific facts that made the transaction stand out. Don’t state conclusions about whether a crime occurred; that assessment belongs to investigators. Give them the context to see what you saw.

Filing IRS Form 8300

Anyone in a trade or business who receives more than $10,000 in cash must file IRS Form 8300. The threshold applies to a single payment, two or more related payments within 24 hours, or related payments that accumulate past $10,000 over 12 months.⁸ Car dealerships, jewelry stores, real estate agents, and attorneys handling large cash payments are common filers.

You may also file Form 8300 voluntarily for a suspicious transaction below $10,000. If you do, you are prohibited from telling the customer that you flagged it.⁹

The form is due by the 15th day after the cash was received. If that falls on a weekend or legal holiday, the deadline moves to the next business day.¹⁰ Businesses that file 10 or more information returns of any type during the calendar year must file Form 8300 electronically.¹¹ Businesses below that threshold can e-file or send a paper form to the Internal Revenue Service, Detroit Federal Building, P.O. Box 32621, Detroit, MI 48232. A religious-belief exemption is available; write “religious exemption” at the top of a paper form.

What to Include in the Report

Whether it’s a SAR, a Form 8300, or an FBI tip, investigators need enough to identify the people and trace the funds. Gather what you can before you file:

Full legal name, date of birth, residential or business address, and Social Security number or Employer Identification Number of the person conducting the transaction.¹²
Account numbers, exact dates, dollar amounts, and the method of payment (cash, cashier’s check, money order).
Frequency of deposits, apparent attempts to break up large amounts, patterns that deviate from the customer’s usual activity, or reluctance to provide identification.
The person’s occupation and stated source of funds, if available.

Precise entries in the amount and payment-method fields prevent processing delays.

Do Not Tell the Person You Reported Them

Federal law makes it illegal to tell someone they’ve been the subject of a SAR. No financial institution, director, officer, employee, or agent may notify anyone involved in a reported transaction that it was flagged. Government employees who learn of the report are bound by the same rule, except as needed to carry out official duties.¹³

The same prohibition covers a voluntary Form 8300 for a suspicious transaction under $10,000: you cannot tell the customer you checked the suspicious-activity box.⁸ If a subpoena or other request seeks a SAR or information that would reveal one exists, the institution must decline to produce it and notify FinCEN.

Protection and Reward for Reporting

You Cannot Be Sued for Filing

Under 31 U.S.C. § 5318, a financial institution and its directors, officers, employees, and agents that disclose suspicious activity to a government agency are not liable to any person under any federal or state law, regulation, or contract for the disclosure.¹³ The safe harbor also covers the failure to notify the subject.

Your Employer Cannot Retaliate

The Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2020, at 31 U.S.C. § 5323, prohibits employers from discharging, demoting, suspending, or threatening an employee for reporting suspected money laundering to the government or assisting an investigation.¹⁴ Remedies for retaliation may include reinstatement, back pay, and legal fees. An attorney can submit reports and communicate with investigators on your behalf.

Possible Financial Award

Under the Anti-Money Laundering Whistleblower Improvement Act, a whistleblower who provides original information leading to a successful enforcement action with monetary sanctions above $1,000,000 may receive 10 to 30 percent of the amount collected.¹⁵ FinCEN is still developing the implementing regulations, and awards will begin once those are finalized.¹⁶

A separate IRS whistleblower program covers tax-related violations, including unreported income from money laundering, with awards generally ranging from 15 to 30 percent of what the IRS collects; the mandatory award track requires more than $2,000,000 in dispute.¹⁷ Anonymous tips can start an investigation, but collecting an award requires disclosing your identity to the awarding agency.

Penalties for Not Filing

If you’re checking your own exposure, the penalties scale with intent.

Under the Bank Secrecy Act, negligent violations — a late SAR, incomplete information without intent to deceive — carry a civil penalty of up to $500 per violation, with an additional penalty of up to $50,000 for a pattern of negligence. Willful violations carry a civil penalty of the greater of $25,000 or the transaction amount, up to $100,000.¹⁸

Willful violations are also a federal crime. A person who deliberately fails to file can face a fine of up to $250,000, up to five years in prison, or both. If the violation is part of a broader pattern of illegal activity involving more than $100,000 in a 12-month period, the maximum fine rises to $500,000 and the prison term to 10 years.¹⁹

Form 8300 has its own penalty schedule, adjusted annually for inflation. For returns due in 2026, penalties run from $60 per return if corrected within 30 days, to $130 per return if filed by August 1, to $340 per return after that, up to $680 per return with no annual cap for intentional disregard. Larger businesses hit annual caps of $683,000, $2,049,000, and $4,098,500 at the three tiers, and small businesses with $5 million or less in gross receipts face lower caps at each tier.²⁰

1
Federal Bureau of Investigation. Electronic Tip Form
2
Federal Bureau of Investigation. Transnational Organized Crime
3
Internal Revenue Service. About Criminal Investigation
4
ICE. Financial Crime
5
Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. FinCEN SAR Electronic Filing Instructions
6
Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. System Requirements – BSA E-Filing System
7
eCFR. 31 CFR 1020.320 – Reports by Banks of Suspicious Transactions
8
Internal Revenue Service. Understand How to Report Large Cash Transactions
9
Internal Revenue Service. Form 8300 and Reporting Cash Payments of Over $10,000
10
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 8300
11
Internal Revenue Service. Businesses Must Electronically File Form 8300 for Cash Payments Over $10,000
12
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Section 8.1 Bank Secrecy Act, Anti-Money Laundering, and Office of Foreign Assets Control
13
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 31 U.S. Code 5318 – Compliance, Exemptions, and Summons Authority
14
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 31 USC 5323 – Whistleblower Incentives and Protections
15
Treasury.gov. FinCEN FY 2026 BIB
16
FinCEN.gov. Whistleblower Program
17
Internal Revenue Service. Whistleblower Office
18
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 31 USC 5321 – Civil Penalties
19
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 31 U.S. Code 5322 – Criminal Penalties
20
Internal Revenue Service. 20.1.7 Information Return Penalties