By Aaron Nicodemus2020-12-11T22:01:00+00:00
Tucked into the $740 billion defense spending bill Congress approved Friday are several anti-money laundering (AML) provisions that could dramatically improve law enforcement’s ability to identify and prosecute criminals laundering money through the U.S. banking system.
The “National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021” (H.R.6395) contains a provision (Section 6403) that will require corporations to identify who owns and controls them (i.e., beneficial ownership) to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) at the U.S. Treasury. The bill also includes a provision (Section 6314) that creates a new Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) whistleblower program at the Treasury.
The Trump administration has imposed sanctions at a record-shattering pace of about three times a day during the president’s time in office: a slew of measures targeting companies, individuals and even oil tankers tied to Iran, North Korea, China, Venezuela and Russia.
President-elect Joe Biden’s team is promising a top-to-bottom review of sanctions operations, but don’t expect a significant slowdown on his watch.
About seven weeks before the inauguration, Biden’s picks for top administration slots are making clear that economic restrictions on countries will remain an essential tool, even if they don’t like everything about the way Trump used them.