Check cashing company ordered to pay more than $1 million for not filing proper reports

CAMDEN, N.J. – GB Check Cashing LLC, a check cashing company licensed in New Jersey, pleaded guilty Thursday and was ordered to forfeit more than $1 million for failing to file currency transaction reports as required by law. The investigation was conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

The co-owners of GB Check Cashing, Dalwinder S. Ghuman, 45, and Talvinder S. Ghuman, 53, both of Mount Laurel, entered the plea on behalf of GB Check Cashing before U.S. District Judge Robert B. Kluger in federal court. Following the guilty plea, Judge Kluger sentenced GB Check Cashing to one year of probation and ordered the company to forfeit $1,086,894.

According to court documents, GB Check Cashing is a money service business which the Ghumans have co-owned and operated since 2003. The business has four storefronts located in Pennsauken, Delran, Carteret and East Windsor. Under federal law, such companies are obligated to file a currency transaction report whenever they are involved in a transaction for the payment, receipt or transfer of more than $10,000.

From September 2010 through June 2011, an individual, referred as "CC" in court documents, operated a check cashing business in New Jersey without the appropriate license. CC brought several checks from customers of the unlicensed business to GB Check Cashing and exchanged them for cash, less a one percent fee. Because the value of those checks was usually greater than $10,000, so was the amount of cash CC received. GB Check Cashing documented each transaction to make it appear as though CC's customers went directly to GB Check Cashing to cash their checks.

In all, GB Check Cashing cashed approximately $1.15 million of CC's customers' checks, paying approximately $1.09 million to CC in increments greater than $10,000. GB Check Cashing did not file currency transaction reports for any of those transactions.