Saturday Nov. 20, 2010
http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Canada/20101119/fintrac-tools-101119/
OTTAWA — The federal agency that probes shady financial dealings turned to leading-edge technology to zero in on funds sent abroad last year.
In its annual report, the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre says ever-more sophisticated tools allow it to quickly comb the more than 126 million files in its holdings.
FinTRAC analyzes financial transaction reports and discloses intelligence to police, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, foreign agencies and others when it suspects the information would help uncover money laundering or terrorist activity.
The annual report says the agency has new data-mining software that allows it to see previously undetected patterns in transactions.
With experience, FinTRAC says, this is expected to be "an extremely valuable tool."
The agency says one of the 579 cases disclosed last year concerned an ongoing multimillion-dollar mortgage fraud.