Money Laundering Tackled in Administration Plan : Crime: Multi-pronged strategy comes as alleged Russian mob cash pipeline is investigated, and amid charges of foot-dragging. Some detect ambivalence.

The Clinton administration launched its first broad offensive against money laundering Thursday, mounting an aggressive campaign to intercept hundreds of billions of dollars a year flowing into U.S. banks and institutions from criminals.

The administration’s multi-pronged strategy, developed at the prodding of Congress, took on a more urgent tone amid an ongoing federal investigation into allegations that Russian mafia figures funneled vast sums of money into the Bank of New York and other U.S. institutions.

“Let the most recent revelations be a signal of how pervasive this problem is,” said Rep. Nydia M. Velazquez (D-N.Y.) as she helped unveil the proposal alongside Treasury Secretary Lawrence H. Summers, Atty. Gen. Janet Reno and other administration officials.

The plan was met with cautious support from some members of Congress and financial experts who have accused the administration of dragging its feet on the burgeoning money-laundering problem. The new strategy, parts of which must be approved by Congress, lays out a broad framework for identifying and heading off illegal laundering--described by Summers as “the fuel that allows criminals to operate.”

Among other things, the plan would:

* Require casinos and various financial service firms to file reports with the government on suspicious, big-money transactions, as banks are now required to do.

* Identify regions at high risk of money laundering--modeled after drug zones that now dot the country--and commit increased law enforcement resources to those areas.

* Bring diplomatic and fiscal pressure on countries that do not take adequate steps to root out money laundering. For example, higher lending rates might be encouraged for offshore institutions in jurisdictions found to be lagging.

* Expand the definition of money laundering to allow prosecution for hiding funds connected to public corruption, arms trafficking and other crimes.

But critics noted that the expanded list still would not allow prosecution of those who evade taxes in their own countries--and then bring the money to the United States.

Deputy Treasury Secretary Stuart E. Eizenstadt said that the complexity of tax evasion law, varying from country to country, was one reason that issue was omitted.

But others suggested that the omission may reflect the administration’s ambivalence about chasing out foreign money that offers a significant contribution to many key sectors of the U.S. economy, such as real estate and the stock market.

“We’re trying to walk this fine line between fighting crime with the one hand and accepting dirty money with the other. It’s a tortured distinction,” said Raymond W. Baker, a Brookings Institution scholar who has studied the money laundering issue. “This is a modest step at best.”

Indeed, federal regulators have initiated several limited steps in the last few years to address the problem, including recommendations on sound risk management practices in the private banking industry. But some of those initiatives have stalled in the face of opposition.

A spokesman for the American Bankers Assn. said that officials there had not had time to review the report. But Baker predicted: “The banking community will without a doubt wage a pretty aggressive campaign against some aspects of this plan.”

Stanley E. Morris, former head of the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network in the Clinton administration, said that the plan’s broad goals are admirable.

For too many years, he said, money laundering has been viewed as largely a law enforcement problem, without incorporating broader economic and foreign policy solutions. “To the extent this report does that, I think it’s wonderful,” he said.

Money laundering has been a crime in the United States since 1986, when Congress made it illegal to disguise the true source of money generated by certain criminal activities.

It is estimated that money laundered to this country has grown to as much as $1 trillion a year. And critics said that the Clinton administration has been slow to respond, pointing out that it produced Monday’s strategy only at the request of Congress.

The report was due months ago. “We felt it was more important to get it right than to get it fast,” Eizenstadt said.