When the FBI Comes Calling…®
MONEY LAUNDERING
Money Laundering is "[t]he act of transferring illegally obtained money through legitimate people or accounts so that its original source cannot be traced." Black's Law Dictionary 1027 (8th ed. 2005). It is a crime that is often committed along with some other wrongful act. The defendant, therefore, will often be prosecuted under a number of statutes. For example, see United States v. Moloney, 287 F.3d 236 (2d Cir. 2002) (defendant pled guilty to eight counts of mail fraud, five counts of wire fraud, one count of bank fraud, and one count of money laundering under 18 U.S.C. § 1956); United States v. Evans, 272 F.3d 1069 (8th Cir. 2001) (defendant charged with multiple counts relating to transporting individuals in interstate commerce for prostitution, money laundering under 18 U.S.C. § 1956, and conspiracy to commit those offenses); United States v. Bearden, 265 F.3d 732 (8th Cir. 2001) (defendant charged with conspiracy to commit mail fraud, two counts of mail fraud, one count of money laundering under 18 U.S.C. § 1957, and four counts of money laundering under 18 U.S.C. § 1956); United States v. Dennis, 237 F.3d 1295 (11th Cir. 2001) (defendant convicted of five counts of bankruptcy fraud, twenty-nine counts of money laundering under 18 U.S.C. § 1956, two counts of wire fraud, and one count of bank fraud); United States v. Ladum, 141 F.3d 1328 (9th Cir. 1998) (defendant convicted on various tax fraud, bankruptcy fraud, and money laundering charges).
Today's money laundering statutes apply equally to the individual or organization seeking to launder money and to the individual or organization offering a method to convert money gained from illegal activities into money that appears to have been legally earned. Furthermore, given money laundering's linkage to international terrorism, aggressive prosecutions of money launderers across the globe is not inconceivable as long as the United States is somehow affected. See generally, Marian Hagler, International Money Laundering and U.S. Law: A Need to "Know-Your-Partner," 31 SYRACUSE J. Int'l L. & Com. 227 (2004); Walter Perkel, Note: Money Laundering and Terrorism: Informal Transfer Systems, 41 AM. CRIM. L. REV. 183 (2004). Therefore, it is of utmost importance to be aware of the money laundering statutes, and know that the United States is aggressively prosecuting it.
There are two operative money laundering statutes: 18 U.S.C. §§ 1956 and 1957.