Proposals to Reform the Federal Money Laundering Statutes
page 4
cases, in particular, this allows prosecutors to obtain easy plea bargains and forfeitures that may not be in the interest of justice.
The following proposals are designed to address the money laundering statutes ’ most serious flaws:
1. The promotion prong of 18 U.S.C. § 1956, which has been subject to absurd application and conflicting interpretations, serves no purpose and should be repealed;
2. The concealment prong of 18 U.S.C. § 1956 should be expressly limited to financial transactions designed by the defendant with the intent to create the appearance of legitimate wealth; and 3. Congress should amend 18 U.S.C. § 1957, which broadly prohibits transactions involving illegal proceeds of a value greater than $10,000, to focus on professional money launderers, rather than one-time offenders. The monetary threshold should be raised and, unless the defendant engaged in a pattern of illegal transactions, the offense should be a misdemeanor. Additionally, NACDL is proposing amendment to 18 U.S.C. § 1957(f), which excludes “ any transaction necessary to preserve a person ’ s right to representation as guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment to the Constitution. ” This proposal adopts the original statutory language, approved by the House on three separate occasions in 1986 and 1988, and is consistent with congressional intent to give full accord to the necessity of pre-indictment (not just post-indictment) representation. Fifteen years of experience with the Money Laundering Control Act has led to the inescapable conclusion that the Department of Justice and the courts are incapable of controlling this blunderbuss. 8 The proposals in this report are not only necessary to bring rationality and fairness to the laws but are 8 See United States Sentencing Commission, Report to the Congress: Sentencing Policy for Money Laundering Offenses, Including Comments on Department of Justice Report 6-7 (1997) (concluding that money laundering sentences are still being sought and imposed “ where the money laundering conduct is so attenuated as to be virtually unrecognizable as the type of conduct for which the money laundering sentencing guidelines were drafted. ” ).
Made with FlippingBook Online document maker