FROM THE OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS

Treasury Secretary Lawrence H. Summers and Attorney General Janet Reno today announced the award of $2.3 million to nine State and local law enforcement agencies and prosecutor's offices to fight money laundering and related financial crime.

"The C-FIC grants will help our state and local law enforcement partners to develop innovative approaches to attack the scourge of money laundering," Secretary Summers said.
"The fight against money laundering is essential to protect the integrity of our financial systems and to bolster our assault on the illegal drug trade and organized crime worldwide."

"No national anti-money laundering effort can be successful without the close cooperation of state and local law enforcement," Attorney General Reno said. "We have actively encouraged such participation through our Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces and other endeavors, and these grants will further this effort."

The grants are the first awarded under the Financial Crime-Free Communities (C-FIC) Grant Program created by the Money Laundering & Financial Crimes Strategy Act of 1998, which was sponsored by Senator Charles Grassley and Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez. The C-FIC grant program is overseen by the Department of Treasury and administered by the Department of Justice, through the Bureau of Justice Assistance and the Office of Justice Programs. C-FIC grants are to be used as seed money for state and local programs that seek to counter money laundering systems within their jurisdictions, and to detect, prevent, and suppress money laundering and related financial crimes.

The C-FIC monies will fund additional prosecution efforts; the creation of money laundering investigation units by state and local law enforcement agencies; a study to determine how laundered money is laundered out of New York State; and an examination of the domestic movement of laundered funds through money transmitters and Money Service Businesses.The C-FIC award winners also will collaborate, where appropriate, with the federal-state interagency action teams in the four High Risk Money Laundering and Financial Crime Areas (HIFCAs) designated in the 2000 National Money Laundering Strategy -- Los Angeles, New York/New Jersey, San Juan, and a HIFCA along the Southwest Border focusing on the smuggling of bulk cash.

The nine initial C-FIC grant award winners are: the San Bernardino, California Sheriff's Department; the San Diego, California Police Department; the Arizona Attorney General's Office; the Texas Attorney General's Office; the New York State Police; the New York Attorney General's Office; the Illinois State Police; the Chicago, Illinois Police Department; and Florida State's Attorney's Office for the 15^th Judicial District (West Palm Beach).