Nexus - 0213 - New Times Magazine-pages

Page Content (OCR)

banker, stockbroker, car dealer, jeweller, coin dealer, or any busi- ness accepting cash (or the above-listed cash equivalents) is consid- ered a money-laundering violation and can result in heavy fines, and even imprisonment. Personal cheques, money market fund cheques and bank wires are not presently reportable on form 8300s. [NB: Murder, rape, and armed robbery now result in smaller and less fre- quent jail terms or fines than the new federal crime of money-laun- dering. In fact, the penalties for money-laundering are 10 times more severe than the same crime prosecuted as tax evasion.] The article admits that there are $300 billion in legitimate cash transactions in America each year, but argues that the 40 million Americans who primarily use cash must adjust. Warwick recom- mends the instituting of a federal debit card system for all transac- tions, down to buying gum or a newspaper, paying for a parking meter or toll phone call, or even leaving a tip. Electronic transfers would “constitute legal tender". There would be no such thing as a "withdrawal", only a “transfer”. A recent trial run was the govern- ment use of debit cards for food stamps and the paying of Marines at Paris Island via debit cards. BUSH'S INTERNATIONAL STRUCTURING AND MONEY-LAUNDERING LAWS EXPANDED FORFEITURE LAW In the former Soviet Union, if the government wanted to appre- The November '92 issue of Low Profile, written by Mark hend and imprison someone who had committed no crime, they Nestmann (P.O. Box 84910, Phoenix, AZ 85071) carried an omi- charged him with the catch-all crime of ‘hooliganism’. In America, nous article on America’s latest money-laundering legislation. On the catch-all crime used against organised crime figures or other 29/10/92, George Bush, who pushed through more money-launder- Americans has for years been RICO statutes or simply ‘conspiracy’. _ ing, anti-currency, and anti-privacy legislation in his single term But in recent years the government has created a new catch-all _ than any other US president, signed the “Annunzio-Wylie Anti- crime, punishable by imprisonment, confiscation of property, heavy money-laundering Act" which: 1) Prohibits a bank or financial fines, or all of them. It is called ‘money-laundering’. institution from disclosing to a depositor the fact that their account Most Americans suppose ‘money-laundering’ refers primarily to _is the subject of a money-laundering operation; 2) Requires all the hidden, laundered, movement of cash profits from drug deals. _ financial institutions or others who sell or redeem monetary instru- Wrong! It refers today to almost any ‘financial crime’, broken finan- _ ments (cash, cashier's cheques, money orders, or traveller's cheques) cial regulation, use of cash, avoidance of government cash reporting or transmit funds by wire, to maintain records of any international laws, unreported foreign bank accounts, unreported transfer of _ transactions, and make them available for warrantless inspection; 3) funds, or virtually anything the government bureaucrats want it to Permits the Treasury to require financial institutions to report "sus- mean. The definition is vague and ever- picious transactions” that could involve a vio- expanding. lation of any law or regulation. The institu- IRS agents are greatly accelerating tion is not allowed to notify the "suspect" of money-laundering cases in situations the report; 4) Permits the government to seize where there is obviously no criminal jp ,y* 4 4 H monetary instruments or financial accounts intent, and certainly no involvement what- Police agen cies nationwide even if it cannot specifically identify the prop- ee ee st Nant ery afte ccna emember, the considers money- ge Bk : , laundering to be any effort you make “ large quantity of cash tobe canbe seized); 5) Prohibits any action to disguise your assets or avoid completinga jny ied in crim : IVE structure or assist in structuring the transfer of federal currency transaction or border- involved in criminal activity monetary assets across US borders in any crossing form. unless they can prove. effort to avoid reporting the transfer. Any If a tax case can be called 'money-laun- th * property involved in any structured transac- dering’, it is no longer civil, but criminal, otherwise. tion is subject to forfeiture. 6) Applies the with large potential criminal sentences and weight of the anti-money-laundering laws to fines. The government's growing and those who conspire to violate them, even if no expanding money-laundering laws are violation takes place; 7) Permits any federal becoming the basis for a total financial agency to share any data it holds with any dictatorship in America, all under the guise of fighting the drug war. other federal agency; 8) Permits the government to confiscate the The first thing the Nazis did in the 1930s to establish control over _assets of people even if they are held in foreign countries (this is the their population was to establish 'money crimes’ that were punish- Culmination of years of negotiations with other countries); 9) It able by forfeiture and imprisonment. Half a century later, the same allows the US government to prosecute foreign banks who use US thing is happening here. The war on drugs is a classic government _ banks to launder money; and 10) It empowers banking regulators to power grab. tevoke the charter of institutions convicted of money-laundering. The Treasury Department has published a booklet entitled | These provisions are designed to terrorise bankers and force them to "Money-Laundering: A Banker's Guide to Avoiding Problems", become the money police for the government. which contains a list of suspicious activities that the Treasury As Mark Nestmann wrote in his 10/92 Low Profile newsletter: Department says fit the profile of a ‘money-launderer’. These activi- "This bill greatly strengthens the government's hand in money-laun- ties include: 1) Paying off a delinquent loan all at once; 2) dering and forfeiture cases. The ‘vague’ international structuring Changing currency from small to large denominations; 3) Buying _ban is particularly frightening. In theory, anyone transferring more cashier's cheques, money orders, or traveller's cheques for less than _ than $10,000 in monetary instruments in installments below that the reporting limit (i.c., under $10,000); 4) Acting nervously while @mount across a US border without notifying the Customs Service making large transactions with cash or monetary struments; 5) could be illegally structuring their transactions. They would then be Opening an account and using it as collateral for a loan; 6) subject to criminal penalties and forfeiture.” Presenting a transaction that involves a large number of $50s and $100 bills; and 7) Presenting a transaction without counting the cash WHEN MONEY-LAUNDERING MEETS THE first. ENVIRONMENTAL POLICE Any non-reporting of cash transactions over $10,000 on a form Mark Nestmann wrote in a recent Low Profile newsletter: “The 8300 (THAT NOW INCLUDES CASHIER'S CHEQUES, MONEY July 1992 ABA Banking Journal describes how the Environmental ORDERS OF ANY KIND AND TRAVELLER'S CHEQUES) by a __ Protection Agency (EPA) can use money-laundering laws against WHEN MONEY-LAUNDERING MEETS THE ENVIRONMENTAL POLICE Mark Nestmann wrote in a recent Low Profile newsletter: "The July 1992 ABA Banking Journal describes how the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) can use money-laundering laws against Vol 2, No 13 - 1993 NEXUS*19