Money transmitting firm Taaj Services US LLC has come forward with a guilty plea for its part in a scheme to bypass financial reporting requirements, agreeing to forfeit a substantial sum in the wake of its admissions. According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, the business failed to report cash transactions over $10,000. It was involved in a conspiracy to illegally transfer money in California using another licensed money-transmitting business as a front. This avoidance of reporting evaded the regulations set by the Bank Secrecy Act.

The details, outlined by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California, reveal that Taaj Services admitted to its unlicensed operations in various states, including California, and its partnership with another money-transmitting business, identified as MTB-1, to conduct its Californian operations. In just two weeks, Taaj Services handled over $700,000 through this arrangement, none of which was reported as mandated by federal law.

The plea agreement includes a condition where the government will defer prosecution for 24 months, provided Taaj Services complies fully with further stipulations of the agreement. The prosecution will be dismissed after the deferral period if the company meets these conditions. In a spate of transactions that escalated the gravity of the case, Taaj Services also confessed to transporting $900,000 in cash to the Middle East in 2020 without proper documentation and, post-pandemic, continued to conduct illicit operations using MTB-1's banking facilities to wire over $66 million abroad.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Michael A. Deshong, Carl F. Brooker, IV, and Christopher Beeler are prosecuting this case. As the allegations stand, the company faces a sentence of up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. Homeland Security Investigations was the primary investigative agency in unraveling Taaj Services' unfiled transaction reports.