In the principal federal criminal money laundering statutes, 18 U.S.C. §§ 1956 and 1957, and to varying degrees in several other federal criminal statutes, money laundering involves the flow of resources to and from several hundred other federal, state, and foreign crimes. It consists of:
engaging in a financial transaction involving the proceeds of certain crimes in order to conceal the nature, source, or ownership of proceeds they produced; engaging in a financial transaction involving the proceeds of certain crimes in order to promote further offenses; transporting funds generated by certain criminal activities into, out of, or through the United States in order to promote further criminal activities, or to conceal the nature, source, or ownership of the criminal proceeds, or to evade reporting requirements; engaging in a financial transaction involving criminal proceeds in order to evade taxes on the income produced by the illicit activity; structuring financial transactions in order to evade reporting requirements; spending more than $10,000 of the proceeds of certain criminal activities; traveling in, or use of the facilities of, interstate or foreign commerce in order to distribute the proceeds of certain criminal activities; traveling in, or use of the facilities of, interstate or foreign commerce in order to promote certain criminal activities; transmitting the proceeds of, or funds to promote, criminal activity in the course of a money transmitting business; transmitting funds in the course of an unlawful money transmitting business; smuggling unreported cash across a U.S. border; or failing to comply with the Department of the Treasury's anti-money laundering provisions. The following is an overview of the elements and other legal attributes and consequences of a violation of Sections 1956 and 1957, as well as selected related federal criminal statutes. § 1956

Section 1956 outlaws four kinds of laundering—promotional, concealment, structuring, and tax evasion—committed or attempted under one or more of three jurisdictional conditions (i.e., laundering involving certain financial transactions, laundering involving international transfers, and stings). Moreover, the RICO predicate offense list encompasses by cross-reference the federal crimes of terrorism cataloged in 18 U.S.C. Gross receipts of a predicate offense may serve as qualifying "proceeds," for concealment as well as for promotional offenses. Imprisonment

Any violation of Section 1956 is punishable by imprisonment for not more than 20 years. While Sections 1956 and 1957 punish transactions involving promoting, concealing, spending, and depositing tainted funds, the Travel Act punishes interstate or foreign travel (or use of the facilities of interstate or foreign commerce) conducted with the intent to (1) distribute the proceeds of a more modest list of predicate offenses ("unlawful activity"), (2) promote or carry on such offenses when there is an overt act in furtherance of that intent, or (3) commit some violent act in their furtherance. It is also a RICO predicate offense, but unlike most RICO predicates is not a Section 1956 or 1957 money laundering predicate offense. In United States v. Bajakajian , the Supreme Court held that the confiscation of $357,144 for a violation of 31 U.S.C. Violations are punishable by imprisonment for not more than five years (not more than 10 years if committed in conjunction with another federal offense or if committed as part of a pattern of activity involving $100,000 or more) and a fine of not more than $250,000 (not more than $500,000 for organizations), with the fine maximum doubled if the offense is committed in conjunction with another federal crime or as part of a pattern of activity involving $100,000. Any property involved in a structuring violation of the section is subject to confiscation. Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO)

As noted earlier, all RICO predicate offenses are by definition money laundering predicate offenses under Sections 1956 and 1957. §§ 1956, 1957)(Maximum Terms of Imprisonment Noted)

-7 U.S.C. § 1956 (laundering of monetary instruments) (20 years);*
-18 U.S.C. State Money Laundering Laws (Citations)

		State Money Transmission Laws (Citations)

		Selected Federal Money Laundering Laws (Text)

			18 U.S.C.
This report provides an overview of the elements of federal criminal money laundering statutes and the sanctions imposed for their violation. The most prominent is 18 U.S.C. § 1956. Section 1956 outlaws four kinds of money laundering—promotional, concealment, structuring, and tax evasion laundering of the proceeds generated by designated federal, state, and foreign underlying crimes (predicate offenses)—committed or attempted under one or more of three jurisdictional conditions (i.e., laundering involving certain financial transactions, laundering involving international transfers, and stings). Its companion, 18 U.S.C. § 1957, prohibits depositing or spending more than $10,000 of the proceeds from a predicate offense. Section 1956 violations are punishable by imprisonment for not more than 20 years. Section 1957 carries a maximum penalty of imprisonment for 10 years. Property involved in either case is subject to confiscation. Misconduct that implicates either offense may implicate other federal criminal statutes as well. Federal racketeer influenced and corrupt organization (RICO) provisions outlaw acquiring or conducting the affairs of an enterprise (whose activities affect interstate or foreign commerce) through the patterned commission of a series of underlying federal or state crimes. RICO violations are also 20-year felonies. The Section 1956 predicate offense list automatically includes every RICO predicate offense, including each "federal crime of terrorism." A second related statute, the Travel Act (18 U.S.C. § 1952), punishes interstate or foreign travel, or the use of interstate or foreign facilities, conducted with the intent to distribute the proceeds of a more modest list of predicate offenses or to promote or carry on such offenses when an overt act is committed in furtherance of that intent. Such misconduct is punishable by imprisonment for not more than five years. Other federal statutes proscribe, with varying sanctions, bulk cash smuggling, layering bank deposits to avoid reporting requirements, failure to comply with federal anti-money laundering provisions, or conducting an unlawful money transmission business.
Section 1956's ban on attempted international transportation of tainted proceeds for the purpose of concealing their ownership, source, nature, or ultimate location is limited to instances where concealment is a purpose rather than an attribute of the transportation (simple smuggling is not proscribed as such), as the Supreme Court explained in Cuellar v. United States, 553 U.S. 550 (2008). In a second case, the Court held that the "proceeds" of a predicate offense often referred to the profits rather than the gross receipts realized from the offense. United States v. Santos, 553 U.S. 507 (2008). Congress responded by defining "proceeds" for money laundering purposes as the property obtained or retained as a consequence of a predicate offense, including gross receipts. P.L. 111-21, 123 Stat. 1618 (2009) (S. 386) (111th Cong.).
The text of the statutes discussed, citations of state money laundering and money transmission statutes, and a list federal predicate offenses with their accompanying maximum terms of imprisonment appear at the end of the report. This report appears in abridged form, without footnotes, full citations, or appendixes, as CRS Report RS22401, Money Laundering: An Abridged Overview of 18 U.S.C. § 1956 and Related Federal Criminal Law. Related CRS Reports include CRS Report R44776, Anti-Money Laundering: An Overview for Congress, by [author name scrubbed] and [author name scrubbed], and CRS Legal Sidebar WSLG1127, Anti-Terrorist/Anti-Money Laundering Information-Sharing by Financial Institutions Under FinCEN's Regulations, by [author name scrubbed] (available to congressional clients upon request).