The legislation saw early use to counteract the funding of criminal organizations but soon came into use to also address the funding of terrorist groups. Criminals and fraudsters use money laundering as a means to hide their illicit actions under the color of legitimacy.
Cash, rather than traceable electronic transactions, tends to be the preferred means of buying illicit goods and services. Money laundering tactics are employed to disguise those cash sources of revenue as legitimate transactions. This can be the result of a single transaction or of two or more related transactions. The rule can apply to an individual, a company, corporation, partnership, association, trust, or an estate.
Form must be filed by the 15th day after the cash transaction took place. This requirement is applicable if any part of the cash transactions occurs within the United States, its possessions, or territories. The legislation maintains a list of exceptions that do not call for such scrutiny. Government departments or agencies and companies listed on major North American exchanges are examples of exempt parties.
While this act can be useful in fighting criminal activity, the BSA has drawn criticism because very few guidelines define what is considered suspicious. Law enforcement agencies also do not need to obtain a court order to gain access to the information. Other observed activities include smuggling, fraud, theft, robbery, identity theft, use of conflict diamonds, 10 Conflict diamonds originate from areas controlled by forces or factions opposed to legitimate and internationally recognized governments and are used to fund military action in opposition to those governments, or in contravention of the decisions of the United Nations Security Council.
In the last case, donors may have no knowledge that their donations have been diverted to support terrorist causes. Other legitimate sources have also been found to provide terrorist organizations with funding; these legitimate funding sources are a key difference between terrorist financiers and traditional criminal organizations. In addition to charitable donations, legitimate sources include foreign government sponsors, business ownership, and personal employment. Although the motivation differs between traditional money launderers and terrorist financiers, the actual methods used to fund terrorist operations can be the same as or similar to those methods used by other criminals that launder funds.
For example, terrorist financiers use currency smuggling, structured deposits or withdrawals from bank accounts; purchases of various types of monetary instruments; credit, debit, or prepaid cards; and funds transfers.
There is also evidence that some forms of informal banking e. FinCEN describes hawala as "a method of monetary value transmission that is used in some parts of the world to conduct remittances, most often by persons who seek to legitimately send money to family members in their home country. It has also been noted that hawala, and other such systems, are possibly being used as conduits for terrorist financing or other illegal activity.
Transactions through hawalas are difficult to detect given the lack of documentation, their size, and the nature of the transactions involved. Funding for terrorist attacks does not always require large sums of money, and the associated transactions may not be complex. Penalties for money laundering and terrorist financing can be severe. Any property involved in a transaction or traceable to the proceeds of the criminal activity, including property such as loan collateral, personal property, and, under certain conditions, entire bank accounts even if some of the money in the account is legitimate , may be subject to forfeiture.
Pursuant to various statutes, banks and individuals may incur criminal and civil liability for violating AML and terrorist financing laws. For instance, pursuant to 18 USC and , the U. Department of Justice may bring criminal actions for money laundering that may include criminal fines, imprisonment, and forfeiture actions. In addition, banks risk losing their charters, and bank employees risk being removed and barred from banking.
A person who commits such a violation while violating another U. Moreover, in addition to criminal and civil money penalty actions taken against them, individuals may be removed from banking pursuant to 12 USC e 2 for a violation of the AML laws under Title 31 of the U. Code, as long as the violation was not inadvertent or unintentional. All of these actions are publicly available. The manual consists of the following sections: Introduction. Developing Conclusions and Finalizing the Examination.
In addition to utilizing information filed by banks in money laundering and terrorist financing investigations, U. The OCC and the U. Department of Treasury periodically issue alerts, advisories and rulemakings concerning institutions or individuals who may be engaged in fraudulent activities or be deemed to be of high-risk for money laundering or terrorist financing activities.
A number of resources are available to assist you in this effort. Criminals have long used money-laundering schemes to conceal or "clean" the source of fraudulently obtained or stolen funds. Money laundering poses significant risks to the safety and soundness of the U. BSA is the primary U. Learn about other organizations and federal government agency efforts to combat money laundering and terrorist financing. This regulation requires every national bank and savings association to have a written, board approved program that is reasonably designed to assure and monitor compliance with the BSA.
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