登录号:00000文件id:95051209。守护神日期:05/12/95标题:美国银行以艰难的方式了解了洗钱活动:TR95051209(现在心甘情愿努力遏制)低频(680)由路易斯·芬纳美国新闻署人员作家华盛顿——花了高额罚款,刑期为银行官员,很多负面宣传在美国银行业终于意识到,它必须配合执法官员遏制洗钱,美国银行家协会(ABA)的一位官员表示。美国律师协会高级联邦立法顾问John Byrne 5月11日在一次外国记者研讨会上表示，"银行业被迫遵守" 1970年的一项法律，该法律规定了现金交易(包括可疑交易)的报告要求。伯恩说,说服了银行的高调起诉1985年波士顿银行无视法规旨在遏制逃税和洗钱,包括文件的要求货币事务报告(CTR)与美国国税局的所有现金交易超过10000美元。波士顿银行(Bank of Boston)承认未能报告与外国银行进行的12亿美元现金交易，为此支付了50万美元的罚款。部分是为了回应这个案件，国会在1986年通过了一项法律，将洗钱定为联邦犯罪。伯恩说，“如果你故意不遵守法律”，每天最高可被处以1万美元的刑事罚款，“如果你故意不遵守法律”，每天最高可被处以100万美元的民事罚款。在严重的洗钱案件中可以处以这种处罚。 Several banks were fined heavily and some bank officials ended up in jail. "The publicity was terrible," Byrne said. "It served as a wakeup call to our industry that not only will you be fined and sanctioned, but the public won't trust you any more... If people don't trust your institution, you're not going to be in business very long." He said banks also have realized that money flowing through a bank for the purpose of being laundered (that is, hiding its illicit origin), "is really no windfall.... It's illegitimate, it's tainted, you have a customer base that's very suspect -- there's no good reason to turn one's eyes away from the money that comes into your system." Banks now file cash transaction reports religiously, Byrne said. Last year 11 million were filed, compared with just 7,000 in 1977. He noted that money launderers have turned to non-bank institutions such as check cashing firms, money exchanges (casas de cambio), and money transmitters. Jonathan Winer of the State Department's Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs stressed that "suspicious transaction reporting by financial institutions from all over the world is critical" in fighting money laundering. "If you don't have the private sector participating and recognizing that it is in its interest to oppose criminality, the whole system breaks down." The U.S. banking industry "has done a remarkable job over the last 10 years in changing its practices," Winer said. He noted that Congress has broadened the law to impose cash and suspicious transaction reporting requirements on non-bank financial institutions, on businesses such as car dealers, jewelry stores, brokerage firms and casinos, and on professionals such as lawyers and accountants. Susan Smith, a trial attorney in the Justice Department's criminal division, pointed out that in the United States less than half of all money laundering is related to drug trafficking. White collar crime, arms smuggling and terrorism, tax fraud, and other criminal activities account for the rest. She said every country should require financial institutions to report suspicious transactions to a regulatory authority, and should have a unit such as the U.S. Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) to coordinate intelligence-gathering and investigations. The world community is realizing that because of technology which permits money to be transmitted instantaneously anywhere in the world, "we must start cooperating with each other in our fight against money laundering -- because there is no other way to stop it," Smith said. NNNN .