§ 1026.320 Reports by futures commission merchants and introducing brokers in commodities of suspicious transactions.

(a) General—(1) Every futures commission merchant (“FCM”) and introducing broker in commodities (“IB–C”) within the United States shall file with FinCEN, to the extent and in the manner required by this section, a report of any suspicious transaction relevant to a possible violation of law or regulation. An FCM or IB–C may also file with FinCEN a report of any suspicious transaction that it believes is relevant to the possible violation of any law or regulation but whose reporting is not required by this section. Filing a report of a suspicious transaction does not relieve an FCM or IB–C from the responsibility of complying with any other reporting requirements imposed by the CFTC or any registered futures association or registered entity as those terms are defined in the Commodity Exchange Act (“CEA”), 7 U.S.C. 21 and 7 U.S.C. 1a(29).

(2) A transaction requires reporting under the terms of this section if it is conducted or attempted by, at, or through an FCM or IB–C, it involves or aggregates funds or other assets of at least $5,000, and the FCM or IB–C knows, suspects, or has reason to suspect that the transaction (or a pattern of transactions of which the transaction is a part):

(i) Involves funds derived from illegal activity or is intended or conducted in order to hide or disguise funds or assets derived from illegal activity (including, without limitation, the ownership, nature, source, location, or control of such funds or assets) as part of a plan to violate or evade any Federal law or regulation or to avoid any transaction reporting requirement under Federal law or regulation;

(ii) Is designed, whether through structuring or other means, to evade any requirements of this chapter or of any other regulations promulgated under the Bank Secrecy Act;

(iii) Has no business or apparent lawful purpose or is not the sort in which the particular customer would normally be expected to engage, and the FCM or IB–C knows of no reasonable explanation for the transaction after examining the available facts, including the background and possible purpose of the transaction; or

(iv) Involves use of the FCM or IB–C to facilitate criminal activity.

(3) The obligation to identify and properly and timely to report a suspicious transaction rests with each FCM and IB–C involved in the transaction, provided that no more than one report is required to be filed by any of the FCMs or IB–Cs involved in a particular transaction, so long as the report filed contains all relevant facts.