Courtesy of James Freis
Why He Matters
James Freis serves as director of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, a bureau of the Department of the Treasury that aims to combat crimes such as money laundering, terrorist financing and fraud. As director of FinCEN, Freis works to strengthen the resistance of international financial systems to criminal exploitation. He also aids the bureau in its overall goal of supporting and enhancing the capacity of financial intelligence units internationally.
FinCEN acts as a market integrity regulator of the financial industry by receiving and maintaining financial transactions data; analyzing and disseminating that data for law enforcement purposes; and building global cooperation with counterpart organizations in other countries and with international bodies. Under Freis’ leadership, FinCEN has increased strategic projects with counterpart financial intelligence units around the world.
Path to Power
Freis’ financial industry experience dates back to his student days working as a teller at a New Jersey bank. He went on to work for the legal department at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. There, he advised on payment and settlement systems issues at wholesale and retail levels, administration of foreign government and central bank accounts and legislative and regulatory reform.
Freis later worked as senior counsel at the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland, where he provided financial services to central banks and international organizations. Freis moved on to serve as deputy assistant general counsel for enforcement and intelligence at the Treasury Department; there, he supervised the lawyers for, among others, FinCEN, a precursor to his current job. In March 2007, the secretary of the Treasury appointed Freis director of FinCEN.
In His Own Words
“America’s economic well-being depends on a financial system grounded in a solid foundation of trust, transparency and integrity.”
The Issues
FinCEN regularly analyzes data from financial institutions subject to the Bank Secrecy Act in order to provide early warning of fraud trends or other criminal abuse of the financial system. The bureau also counts mortgage fraud among its top priorities and works with regulatory partners and law enforcement at the federal and state level to combat it.
In April 2009, the Obama administration announced a multi-agency crackdown on foreclosure rescue scams and loan modification fraud. FinCEN came out in support of the effort because of its long experience with mortgage fraud and capacity to facilitate information sharing. In November 2009, the Departments of Justice, Treasury, Housing and Urban Development, and the Securities and Exchange Commission announced the establishment of an interagency Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force to strengthen efforts to combat financial crime.
The Network
Through his position with FinCEN, Freis oversees a partnership between government and industry. Financial institutions across the country subject to the Bank Secrecy Act are tasked with providing FinCEN financial information that the bureau in turn shares with regulatory and law enforcement partners. Federal, state and local law enforcement and regulatory agencies can expand their own investigative capabilities using FinCEN resources.
FinCEN consists of about 300 employees, roughly one-third of whom are analysts, one-third administrative and managerial professionals and one-third regulatory specialists, technology experts and federal agents. William F. Baity serves directly under Freis as deputy director of the bureau.
Freis has worked with Attorney General Eric Holder, HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan and Federal Trade Commission Chairman Jon Leibowitz on mortgage fraud issues.
Campaign Contributions
The Federal Election Commission has no record of campaign contributions by Freis.