Given our long history of proactively working with federal authorities, Sterling Currency Group was completely surprised by the federal complaint and continues to strongly deny any allegations of wrong doing.
Sterling has been in business as a currency exchange company since 2004 and in that time has conducted millions of exchange service transactions with nearly 200,000 customers, maintaining an "A" rating with the Better Business Bureau from 2004 until we ceased operations involuntarily on June 3rd, 2015.
Sterling has spent millions of dollars and logged thousands of hours to ensure complete compliance with statutes and regulations in all 50 states as well as with the federal government. Additionally, the company has also proactively sought independent audits and inspections since 2007. It has requested and participated in meetings with officials from multiple federal agencies to ensure all actions of the company are above reproach.
The company has been registered with the United States Department of the Treasury, through the Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) bureau, as a Money Service Business since 2006, and thus has participated in on-site examinations by FinCEN on several occasions.
Despite the statements in the civil complaint, every single business related to the owners of Sterling Currency Group is legitimate and is compliant with all state and federal laws. We believe the record will show that representations made about internal communications between employees at Sterling in the civil complaint filed by the federal government are inaccurate and taken out of context.
Sterling has repeatedly asked the government to return customer funds they seized on June 3, 2015 so that Sterling can satisfy the numerous outstanding orders that were in progress on June 3, 2015. To date, the government has refused to allow Sterling to complete or refund those outstanding orders.
As Sterling continues to work toward a resolution related to government actions that debilitated Sterling’s ability to operate, Sterling remains committed to taking care of its customers and satisfying outstanding orders as of June 3, 2015. We look forward to a positive resolution and are doing everything we can to expedite a satisfactory conclusion. Sterling will continue to update as more information becomes available. Thank you for your continued patience and understanding.