US money laudering law

Title III made significant changes to money laundering regulations, imposed enhanced requirements for AML programs, and significantly expanded the scope of coverage to nonbank financial institutions. It requires financial institutions to establish AML programs that include policies, procedures and controls, designation of a compliance officer, training, and independent review. What is more, it requires that certain financial institutions establish customer identification procedures for new accounts as well as enhanced due diligence (EDD) for correspondent and private banking accounts maintained by non-U.S. persons.
For Section 321 purposes, the term beneficial owner means an individual who has s level of control over the funds or assets in the account. This control or entitlement allows the individual (directly or not) to control, manage or direct the account [Welling 1989].
FinCEN, the third European Union (EU) Money Laundering Directive and the 2007 United Kingdom Money Laundering Regulations provide additional guidance on who qualifies as a beneficial owner. Most recently, FinCEN published the advanced notice of proposed ruling (ANPR), Customer Due Diligence Requirements for Financial Institutions that proposes a more detailed definition of the term and could require all financial institutions to collect and verify this information on their customers.
Conclusion


Money laundering is the attempt to disguise the proceeds of illegal activity so that they appear to come from legitimate sources or activities. It can and does take many forms; it typically occurs in three stages. Placement is the stage in which funds derived from illegal activities are introduced into the financial system anywhere in the world.
Although money laundering is often equated with drug trafficking, the proceeds of many crimes can be associated: financial fraud, computer crimes, alien smuggling, illegal arms sales, foreign official corruption, exchange control violations, illegal gambling, terrorist financing and so on and so forth.
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), a bureau of the U.S. Treasury Department, was established in 1990 be Treasury Order 105-08. Its mission is to safeguard the financial system from abuses of financial crime. It is the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) of the United States, formed to support law enforcement and the financial community in the fight against money laundering, terrorist financing and other financial intelligence to law enforcement without overburdening the financial community or compromising the privacy of individuals.
While FinCEN relies primarily on federal functional regulators to examine financial institutions and enforce AML compliance, the regulators look to FinCEN for guidance in the implementation of the BSA and USA PATRIOT Act. FinCEN has issued regulations, in concert with federal functional regulators and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), related to BSA and AML compliance. FinCEN may issue enforcement actions for violations of the BSA and USA PATRIOT Act through its Office of Enforcement jointly or unitarily.
The U.S. money laundering law is based upon three chief acts, namely The bank secrecy Act of 1970, The Money Laundering Control Act of 1986, PATRIOT Act of 2001, every of which include its own features and peculiarities. The BSA consists of two parts: Title I Financial Recordkeeping and Title II Reports of Currency and Foreign Transactions. Title I authorizes the Secretary of the Department of the Treasury (Treasury) to issue regulations, which require insured financial institutions to maintain certain records. Title II directed the Treasury to prescribe regulations governing the reporting of certain transactions by and through financial institutions in excess of $10,000 into, out of, and within the U.S. The Money Laundering Control Act (MLCA) of 1986 makes it a federal crime to launder proceeds from specified unlawful activity. In enacting federal legislation criminalizing the laundering of illicit proceeds, Congress was responding to the spiraling growth and pervasiveness of money laundering in the United States and the nexus between money laundering and organized crime. Finally, the USA PATRIOT Act established a host of new measures to prevent, detect, and prosecute those involved in money laundering and terrorist financing.
Bibliography


1 Doyle, Ch. (2012) Money Laundering: An Overview of 18 U.S.C. 1956 and Related Federal Criminal Law. Congressional Research Service. February 8.
2 Gurule, J. (1995). The Money Laundering Control Act of 1986: Creating a New Federal Offense or Merely Affording Federal Prosecutors an Alternative Means of Punishing Specified Unlawful Activity? Scholarly Works. Paper 21.
3 Panetta, T. The USA PATRIOT Act. HUMAN RIGHTS & HUMAN WELFARE. Pp. 163-182. [online resource] http://www.du.edu/korbel/hrhw/researchdigest/terror/patriotact.pdf [visited on 20.05.2016].
4 Welling, S. (1989). Money Laundering, and the Federal Criminal Law: The Crime of Structuring Transactions. 41 FLORIDA LAW REVIEW.
5 Williams, I., Whitney, J. (2004). FEDERAL MONEY LAUNDERING: CRIMES AND FORFEITURE. London, Skillset.











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