Proposals to Reform the Federal Money Laundering Statutes

NACDL has proposed several technical statutory amendments to rectify the money laundering regime’s most serious flaws by simplifying and clarifying current law, facilitating compliance efforts by individuals and businesses, and by focusing federal law enforcement on serious misconduct. [Released August 2001]

Documents

Money laundering, or the transfer of criminally derived money into legitimate channels, statues were originally enacted to curb drug trafficking and organized crime. However, the purview of the money laundering laws has slowly grown to include a wide range of activities, including routine business transactions. At the same time, courts have minimized and blurred the evidentiary requirements for establishing money laundering. As interpreted and applied, the current law is a cruel trap for unwary individuals and businesses that inflicts felony convictions, draconian and inflexible prison sentences, and ruinous asset forfeiture. NACDL has proposed several technical statutory amendments to rectify the money laundering regime’s most serious flaws by simplifying and clarifying current law, facilitating compliance efforts by individuals and businesses, and by focusing federal law enforcement on serious misconduct.