Meese Wants Tough New Law to Combat Money Laundering
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WASHINGTON — Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III today proposed a money laundering bill, backed by the Justice and Treasury departments, that seeks stiff civil and criminal penalties for people and banks engaging in the practice.
Meese said Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.), chairman of the Judiciary Committee, will introduce the legislation in the Senate and Rep. Bill McCollom (R-Fla.) will introduce a companion measure in the House.
Meese said that “professional money launderers play a key role for any criminal enterprise, whether it’s an organized crime family or a narcotics ring. . . . It takes a professional--a lawyer, an accountant, a banker, with all the trappings of respectability--to manipulate these sophisticated schemes.”
The bill would directly prohibit an individual or an institution from conducting a transaction involving the movement of money generated by or derived from the commission of any crime.
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