The Internal Revenue Service is examining jewelry wholesalers and retailers for compliance with their anti-money-laundering obligations under the Patriot Act.

These audits are being added to the IRS’s standard audits to see if jewelers were filing Form 8300, required for cash transactions over $10,000, explained Cecilia Gardner, executive director of the Jewelers Vigilance Committee. “The IRS has been performing audits for 8300 compliance for a long time, and now they also look at anti-money-laundering programs,” she said, noting that most of the people targeted tend to be wholesalers.

Gardner doesn’t know whether the IRS has stepped up these audits, but she said: “When I do regional outreach seminars, someone always comes up to me and says, ‘I just got audited.’”