REPORT #223 April 2000
MONEY LAUNDERING A USA DEFINITION!


Produced by the Belize Development Trust

A panel discussion by Duane R. Lyons, lead U.S. prosecutor, Hy Shapiro, a criminal defensee lawyer from Miami, Tom Cash an executive and Lowell Bergman, in a discussion reported in the Miami Herald on the case called OPERATION CASABLANCA has heightened public and institutional bank awareness of money laundering.

The case has defined money laundering as:

THE ATTEMPT TO MASK THE SOURCE OF ILLEGAL GAINS FROM CRIMINAL ENTERPRISES, BY FUNNELING THE CASH THROUGH A LEGITIMATE BUSINESS.
So, banks with lots of offshore TRUST ACCOUNTS need not worry. The guy sticking a bundle offshore, so his ex-wife cannot find it, is not money laundering. A stash that is an emergency fund in an offshore account that is secret, is not money laundering. Illegal drug proceeds that are put through lawyers, or car dealers, or other legitimate businesses to wash it, are money laundering. Covert black CIA operational funds are money laundering. But a guy just protecting his assets in an offshore trust account, is not money laundering.

Money laundering definitions differ in different parts of the world. Depends on the country.

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