by David Tyree, Senior Advisor for Financial Crime Detection and Anti-Money Laundering, Valid8 Financial
Fingerprinting revolutionized criminal investigations by introducing a unique, immutable identifier that serves as reliable, objective evidence. Financial evidence provides a similar level of objectivity—transactions are time-stamped, sourced from verified institutions and tied to specific accounts, making them difficult to dispute or distort.
The key difference between the two: Fingerprints link one person to an investigation, while financial evidence exposes the entire criminal enterprise, revealing who profits, how the operation runs, and where the money goes. Criminal networks can easily replace the person convicted by fingerprints. They can’t operate when all of their leaders are behind bars and their financial assets are gone.
I’ve seen financial evidence in action. When I worked on a human trafficking task force, we responded to a hotel disturbance that appeared to be trafficking. With the immediately available information, we might have made a few misdemeanor arrests and closed the file, leaving the perpetrators free to victimize more people. However, following the money allowed us to trace payments flowing from buyers to the women, then funneling to a single individual in another state. That trail confirmed what the scene suggested and helped build a case that disrupted the entire trafficking operation.
However, many investigators never get the chance to follow the money because the process is so resource-intensive and technically demanding. To make a bigger impact on stopping crime, we must democratize financial evidence the same way we did with fingerprints.
Financial Investigation Barriers: Data Overload and Communication Gaps
Criminals have methods of obscuring their fingerprints—the same is true for their financial misdeeds. However, it’s impossible to completely cover up illicit money movement. Investigators just have to know what they’re looking for, which is easier said than done.
Criminals employ complex schemes to hide their money amid routine transactions, using techniques like transferring funds between multiple accounts, converting cash into gift cards or routing the money through shell companies. Most law enforcement officers don’t have the training or the time to spot these complex schemes.
The first hurdle to examining financial evidence is the sheer volume of information. Investigations cover years of documents from dozens of institutions containing a wide variety of transaction types. Sorting, entering, verifying and reconciling these transactions can take weeks or even months. Investigators juggle multiple cases, limiting the time available to accomplish this tedious task. Circumstances frequently force officers to leave the evidence untouched.
After investigators aggregate all the data, they are staring at spreadsheet after spreadsheet of transactions with no idea where to start. They often lack perspective on what abnormal money movement looks like. Even with this expertise, deciphering suspicious activity in the sea of data is inherently difficult. Officers need additional support to uncover leads.
Too often, cases stall not because the evidence is weak, but because it gets lost in translation. Differences in terminology, documentation standards and investigative priorities between law enforcement and financial institutions can lead to missed opportunities.
For example, requesting “all relevant financial records” related to a suspect does not align with how banks organize their documentation. The institution might provide bank statements and deposit records, but omit internal compliance notes about potentially suspicious activity because they are not classified as financial records.
Similarly, investigators may find it difficult to interpret a document’s relevance due to unfamiliar financial jargon. No one is intentionally leaving out information, but the disconnect results in critical evidence going unnoticed.
Communicating the value of financial information within law enforcement and legal teams is also a barrier. Consider this scenario: A suspect working as a server receives round-dollar cash deposits and regularly buys luxury items. Individually, these actions may seem unremarkable, but together they reveal a spending pattern that doesn’t align with the person’s pattern of life. This money may come from criminal activity, but if the investigator can’t communicate why the transactions are suspicious, a potential smoking gun could be left in the evidence room.
Law enforcement officers shouldn’t need accounting courses to pursue these leads. We must find ways to simplify and accelerate financial evidence investigations.
Making Financial Investigations Accessible
A growing number of accountants are automating data preparation with technology. Law enforcement can invest in similar tools to extract, reconcile and verify thousands of transactions for a clean, comprehensive dataset delivered in hours, rather than weeks.
Verified financial intelligence (VFI) tools also support analysis by flagging anomalies, suspicious activities and unusual patterns hidden in the data. The outputs are standardized and straightforward, so people in any role can understand what the information means. Investigators can immediately start following clear leads instead of searching for potential evidence. The clarity of the information also supports better communication within law enforcement and among legal and financial institutions.
The evidence processed by these solutions is comprehensive, defensible and admissible. The analysis covers the complete financial history with a clear chain of custody. Every transaction is accounted for, allowing patterns to surface organically rather than being assumed. The thoroughness gives investigators the confidence to follow leads, make recommendations and present findings knowing the evidence is accurate.
When everyone from federal agents to local police officers can execute a financial investigation, any department can turn a traffic stop drug bust into a crime ring takedown. The information is there; much like a fingerprint at a crime scene, it’s waiting to be found and decoded.
About the author
David Tyree, Senior Advisor for Financial Crime Detection and Anti-Money Laundering at Valid8 Financial. Tyree is a 25-year veteran of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and a recognized expert in financial crime investigations, anti-money laundering, and asset forfeiture. At Valid8, Tyree helps law enforcement agencies understand how to use technology to convert complex financial data into clear, courtroom-ready narratives.