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Anti-Money Laundering

Money laundering fuels everything from terror finance and sanctions evasion to human trafficking and corruption. However, experts warn that our anti-money laundering efforts are on the brink of failure, as law enforcement only interdicts less than one-half of one percent of the trillions of dollars laundered each year. We need a new approach to addressing money laundering and the dangerous threats to our safety and security from the crimes funded through illicit finance.

Quartz: House Republicans are gutting a bill to fight money-laundering

House Republicans this week axed a key passage in a bill that is deemed crucial in the fight to stop kleptocrats, drug traffickers and terrorists from laundering money through the US.

The original legislation would have forced anyone setting up a company in the US to tell authorities who the actual owner was. Law enforcement, anti-corruption groups and national security experts say this is essential in fighting crimes that range from child trafficking to Russian election hacking; America’s opaque incorporation laws can otherwise make it impossible to find out who is behind a company benefiting from such crimes.

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Tracking Illicit Russian Financial Flows

Trillions of dollars in capital flows into the United States annually, and trillions of dollars in payments are cleared through New York daily. No one knows exactly whom the funds belong to, where they are held, or how they are deployed. No one knows because the U.S. government does not track the money — but it could if it wanted to. What is known is that Russia, other countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States, and China are the primary drivers of non-transparent capital flows worldwide.

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My law degree wasn’t meant for money laundering. But boy, it would make it easy.

Anonymous companies are ubiquitous in most money-laundering schemes, and in the allegations against Trump campaign associates Paul Manafort and Richard Gates. Shell companies are formed with no record of the true owners, and because they are so easy to set up — especially if you’re a lawyer — you can easily layer dozens of them to confuse investigators and hide dirty money.

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Committee Advances Bill to Target Financing of Human Trafficking

House Financial Services Committee Votes Unanimously in Favor of the End Banking for Human Traffickers Act of 2017 (H.R.2219)
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday voted unanimously to advance legislation targeting the financing of human trafficking, in a move welcomed by the Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency (FACT) Coalition.

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Letter to Reps. Hensarling and Waters Supporting End Banking for Human Traffickers Act (H.R.2219)

The Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency Coalition (FACT Coalition) sent a letter to House Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling and Ranking Member Maxine Waters in support of the bipartisan End Banking for Human Traffickers Act of 2017 (H.R.2219), which would increase the role of financial policymakers and the financial industry in combating human trafficking.

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