FROM THE OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS

The Administration on Wednesday is submitting to Congress the Money Laundering Act of 1999, designed to bolster our domestic and international enforcement powers in the fight against money laundering.

The legislation was called for in the National Money Laundering Strategy jointly announced in September by Treasury Secretary Lawrence H. Summers and Attorney General Janet Reno.

"Money laundering poses a serious threat to any country's economic integrity and security," said Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder. "The Money Laundering Act of 1999 will make it increasingly difficult for those who attempt to launder money through financial institutions to derive profits from their illegal acts."

Deputy Treasury Secretary Stuart Eizenstat added, "the legislation is an important element of our National Money Laundering Strategy. We are committed to ensuring that this Strategy does not remain mere words on paper, but is translated, quickly, into concrete actions that fundamentally change the way we address money laundering."

In the months ahead Treasury and Justice will pursue a variety of initiatives to translate the Strategy into practical action. The new legislation would, among other things:

• Expand the list of foreign crimes that serve as a basis for money laundering prosecution - to include fraud, official bribery, misappropriation of public funds, arms trafficking and crimes of violence.
• Make bulk cash smuggling - smuggling of more than $10,000 out of the United States -- a crime and provide for confiscation of the smuggled currency.
• Make it a crime for a currency courier to transport more than $10,000 in currency in interstate commerce, knowing that it is unlawfully derived.
• Enact a "long-arm" statute allowing federal courts to exercise jurisdiction over foreign banks and other entities that violate the federal money laundering laws by conducting transactions in the United States.
• Require persons who purchase drug dollars on the Colombian black market to prove that they had no reason to know that the dollars were derived from unlawful activity.
• Give federal prosecutors greater access to foreign business records that may be used to trace the money sold on the Black Market Peso Exchange system, by which drug proceeds from U.S. cities are ultimately converted into goods smuggled into Colombia.