NCJ Number
212326
Date Published
2005
Length
12 pages
Annotation
This chapter examines Title III of the USA PATRIOT Act, which aims to strengthen the ability of the Federal Government to prevent, detect, and prosecute international money laundering and the financing of terrorism; the implications of Title III for citizens' right to privacy regarding financial records are also discussed.
Abstract
The chapter opens with a discussion of the nature of money laundering. It is defined as "the way criminals take proceeds from illegal activities and get it back into circulation so that it no longer appears to be from illegal activities." The next section addresses the nature of terrorism. Various definitions of international and domestic terrorism are noted, with the author finally commenting that "No matter which definition is correct, terrorism is an act that instills fear through violence and it affects lots of people throughout the world." The subsequent section of the chapter focuses on how money laundering and terrorism are related. Terrorism is necessarily involved in money laundering because it involves the funding of illegal activities through means that obscure the goal of such funding if not the source. A discussion of the regulatory framework designed to combat money laundering notes that Title III of the USA PATRIOT Act allows the U.S. Department of Justice to use the same tools on terrorists that are used to combat money laundering by mobsters and drug dealers. Other sections of the chapter consider how the prevention of money laundering prevents terrorism without violating a citizen's right to privacy. Essentially, the provisions of Title III are designed only to allow the monitoring of financial activities deemed suspicious by the financial institutions handling them, which is an essential tool for identifying and investigating money laundering by terrorists. 119 notes and discussion questions