Natalie Edwards, a former senior official at FinCEN (the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network), admitted to leaking thousands of Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) to BuzzFeed News and journalist Jason Leopold between October 2017 and October 2018. These documents enabled investigative reporting—later labeled the FinCEN Files—which exposed how international banks facilitated dirty money flows while regulators often failed to act on warnings concealed in the confidential reports. Edwards claimed she first pursued internal whistleblower channels within the Treasury but later provided documents to the media because she believed more transparency was urgently needed.





In 2021, Edwards was sentenced to six months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, after pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy for unauthorized disclosure of SARs. Her defense painted her actions as rooted in duty and morality—she said she “could not stand by aimlessly” while seeing evidence of wrongdoing, and emphasized that whistleblower protections and internal reporting had failed to adequately address her concerns. However, prosecutors countered that Edwards acted recklessly and did not show sufficient remorse. Her case stirred debate over how whistleblowers are treated, particularly those who leak classified or confidential documents to the media.


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https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2021/06/10/opinion/fincen-buzzfeed-edwards-prison.amp.html