Federal- Money Laundering
Statute
18 USC 1957. Engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from specified unlawful activity
- Whoever, in any of the circumstances set forth in subsection (d), knowingly engages or attempts to engage in a monetary transaction in criminally derived property of a value greater than $10,000 and is derived from specified unlawful activity, shall be punished as provided in subsection (b).
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- Except as provided in paragraph (2), the punishment for an offense under this section is a fine under title 18,
United States Code, or imprisonment for not more than ten years or both.
- The court may impose an alternate fine to that imposable under paragraph (1) of not more than twice the
amount of the criminally derived property involved in the transaction.
- In a prosecution for an offense under this section, the Government is not required to prove the defendant knew that the offense from which the criminally derived property was derived was specified unlawful activity.
- The circumstances referred to in subsection (a) are -
- that the offense under this section takes place in the United States or in the special maritime and territorial
jurisdiction of the United States; or
- that the offense under this section takes place outside the United States and such special jurisdiction, but the
defendant is a United States person (as defined in section 3077 of this title, but excluding the class described
in paragraph (2)(D) of such section).
- Violations of this section may be investigated by such components of the Department of Justice as the Attorney General may direct, and by such components of the Department of the Treasury as the Secretary of the Treasury may direct, as appropriate and, with respect to offenses over which the United States Postal Service has jurisdiction, by the Postal Service. Such authority of the Secretary of the Treasury and the Postal Service shall be exercised
in accordance with an agreement which shall be entered into by the Secretary of the Treasury, the Postal Service, and the Attorney General.
- As used in this section -
- the term "monetary transaction" means the deposit, withdrawal, transfer, or exchange, in or affecting
interstate or foreign commerce, of funds or a monetary instrument (as defined in section 1956(c)(5) of this
title) by, through, or to a financial institution (as defined in section 1956 of this title), including any
transaction that would be a financial transaction under section 1956(c)(4)(B) of this title, but such term does
not include any transaction necessary to preserve a person's right to representation as guaranteed by the
sixth amendment to the Constitution;
- the term "criminally derived property" means any property constituting, or derived from, proceeds obtained
from a criminal offense; and
- the term "specified unlawful activity" has the meaning given that term in section 1956 of this title.
Jury Instruction
The Defendant can be found guilty of that offense only if all of the following facts are proved beyond a reasonable doubt:
- That the Defendant knowingly engaged or attempted to engage in a money transaction;
- That the Defendant knew the transaction involved criminally derived property;
- That the property had a value of greater than $10,000;
- That the property was, in fact, derived from the unlawful activity described in the indictment; and
- That the transaction occurred in the United States or as otherwise set forth in subsection D.
The term “monetary transaction” means the deposit, withdrawal, transfer, or exchange, in or affecting interstate commerce, of funds or a monetary instrument by, through or to a financial institution. The term does not include any transaction necessary to preserve a person’s right to representation as guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment to the Constitution.
The term “criminally derived property” means any property constituting, or derived from, proceeds obtained from a criminal offense. The government must prove on that the Defendant knew that the property involved in the money transaction constituted, or was derived from, proceeds obtained by some criminal offense. The government does not have to prove that the Defendant knew the precise nature of that criminal offense, or that the Defendant knew that the property involved in the transaction represented the proceeds from the unlawful activity describe din the indictment.
Although the government must prove that at least $10,000 of the property at issue was criminally-derived property, the government does not have to prove that all of the property at issue was criminally-derived.
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