Following Dirty Money - The Kaufman Commission and Organized Crime (From Organized Crime in America, P 73-82, 1987, Timothy S Bynum, ed. - See NCJ-104665)

• NCJ Number: 104670
• Author(s): J Dombrink; M Melrose
• Date Published: 1987
• Length: 10 pages
• Sale Source: Criminal Justice Press/Willow Tree Press
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 1985 Annual Meeting of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Annotation

The recent U.S. President's Commission on Organized Crime focused on money laundering and has underscored the interaction of the illegitimate and legitimate sectors of the economy, and the difficult tasks of (1) separating criminal capital from legitimate capital, and (2) detecting and prosecuting the movement of criminal capital.

Abstract

The Kaufman Commission chose money laundering on the presumption that it would yield more convictions of high-level criminals and that bankers, lawyers, and accountants implicated in money laundering might prove more willing than 'professional criminals' to become government witnesses. However, laundering is difficult to track, partly because of banking procedures that are intended to protect the confidentiality of transactions. The Kaufman Commission has recommended changes to remedy shortcomings in the 1970 Bank Secrecy Act, which had aimed to legislate banking practices to disrupt laundering. Such administrative and legislative measures will be necessary to aid the enforcement efforts directed against money laundering. Two case examples of money laundering and 25 references.