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Strengthen Anti-Money Laundering Laws
Terrorists, drug traffickers and other criminals use loopholes in U.S. money-laundering laws to transfer, undetected, thousands and even millions of dollars around the world to finance criminal activity. This week I introduced bipartisan legislation to buttress those laws and close gaps caused by court decisions and the ingenuity of criminal organizations.
A major piece of the bill I’ve sponsored with Senator Dianne Feinstein of California – the Combating Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing, and Counterfeiting Act of 2011 -- would require prepaid access cards to be reported to border authorities when they contain more than $10,000 cash.
Our bill also would make it a crime to participate in reverse money laundering, when a person transports money or goods that get used in money laundering. It would stop the ability of criminals to claim they didn’t know the funds or goods they were involved in transferring were involved in illegal activities. Ambiguity in the law was identified by the Supreme Court in Cuellar v. United States, where the Supreme Court held that individual cash smugglers who did not know about the criminal activity that led to the proceeds were immune from criminal prosecution. Our legislation would act upon the recommendation of the Supreme Court and fix the criminal code to stop those transporting laundered money or assets from acting with impunity. And, it would let law enforcement use wiretaps in money-laundering investigations and make a number of other procedural fixes streamlining the process for prosecuting money laundering cases.
Congress ought to act quickly. Money laundering has been a federal criminal activity in the United States for decades. The law needs to keep pace and work to stop terrorist and drug-trafficker financing.
Friday, October 21, 2011
Terrorists, drug traffickers and other criminals use loopholes in U.S. money-laundering laws to transfer, undetected, thousands and even millions of dollars around the world to finance criminal activity. This week I introduced bipartisan legislation to buttress those laws and close gaps caused by court decisions and the ingenuity of criminal organizations.
A major piece of the bill I’ve sponsored with Senator Dianne Feinstein of California – the Combating Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing, and Counterfeiting Act of 2011 -- would require prepaid access cards to be reported to border authorities when they contain more than $10,000 cash.
Our bill also would make it a crime to participate in reverse money laundering, when a person transports money or goods that get used in money laundering. It would stop the ability of criminals to claim they didn’t know the funds or goods they were involved in transferring were involved in illegal activities. Ambiguity in the law was identified by the Supreme Court in Cuellar v. United States, where the Supreme Court held that individual cash smugglers who did not know about the criminal activity that led to the proceeds were immune from criminal prosecution. Our legislation would act upon the recommendation of the Supreme Court and fix the criminal code to stop those transporting laundered money or assets from acting with impunity. And, it would let law enforcement use wiretaps in money-laundering investigations and make a number of other procedural fixes streamlining the process for prosecuting money laundering cases.
Congress ought to act quickly. Money laundering has been a federal criminal activity in the United States for decades. The law needs to keep pace and work to stop terrorist and drug-trafficker financing.
Friday, October 21, 2011