[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 73 (Tuesday, May 3, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2279-S2280]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   SENATE RESOLUTION 610--EXPRESSING THE SENSE OF CONGRESS THAT THE 
 ACTIVITIES OF TRANSNATIONAL CRIMINAL ORGANIZATIONS, INCLUDING THE USE 
OF ILLICIT ECONOMIES, ILLICIT TRADE, AND TRADE-BASED MONEY LAUNDERING, 
 POSE A THREAT TO THE NATIONAL INTERESTS AND NATIONAL SECURITY OF THE 
 UNITED STATES AND ALLIES AND PARTNERS OF THE UNITED STATES AROUND THE 
                                 WORLD

  Mr. CASSIDY (for himself, Ms. Sinema, Mr. Cornyn, Mr. Graham, Mr. 
Menendez, Mr. Wyden, Mr. Whitehouse, Mr. Rubio, and Mr. Young) 
submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee 
on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs:

                              S. Res. 610

       Whereas trade-based money laundering is among the most 
     widely used and least understood forms of money laundering, 
     disguising proceeds of crime by moving value through 
     international trade transactions in an attempt to legitimize 
     illicit origins of money or products;
       Whereas the transnational nature and complexity of trade-
     based money laundering make detection and investigation 
     exceedingly difficult;
       Whereas drug trafficking organizations, terrorist 
     organizations, and other transnational criminal organizations 
     have succeeded at trade-based money laundering despite the 
     best efforts of United States law enforcement;

[[Page S2280]]

       Whereas trade-based money laundering includes other 
     offenses such as tax evasion, disruption of markets, profit 
     loss for businesses, and corruption of government officials, 
     and constitutes a persistent threat to the economy and 
     security of the United States;
       Whereas trade-based money laundering can result in the 
     decreased collection of customs duties as a result of the 
     undervaluation of imports and fraudulent cargo manifests;
       Whereas trade-based money laundering can decrease tax 
     revenue collected as a result of the sale of underpriced 
     goods in the marketplace;
       Whereas trade-based money laundering is one mechanism by 
     which counterfeiters infiltrate supply chains, threatening 
     the quality and safety of consumer, industrial, and military 
     products;
       Whereas drug trafficking organizations collaborate with 
     Chinese criminal networks to launder profits from drug 
     trafficking through Chinese messaging applications;
       Whereas on March 16, 2021, the Commander of the United 
     States Southern Command, Admiral Faller, testified to the 
     Committee on Armed Services of the Senate that transnational 
     criminal organizations ``market in drugs and people and guns 
     and illegal mining, and one of the prime sources that 
     underwrites their efforts is Chinese money-laundering'';
       Whereas the deaths and violence associated with drug 
     traffickers, the financing of terrorist organizations and 
     other violent non-state actors, and the adulteration of 
     supply chains with counterfeit goods showcase the danger 
     trade-based money laundering poses to the United States;
       Whereas trade-based money laundering undermines national 
     security and the rule of law in countries where it takes 
     place;
       Whereas illicit profits for transnational criminal 
     organizations and other criminal organizations can lead to 
     instability globally;
       Whereas the United States is facing a drug use and overdose 
     epidemic, as well as an increase in consumption of synthetic 
     drugs, such as methamphetamine and fentanyl, which is often 
     enabled by Chinese money laundering organizations operating 
     in coordination with drug-trafficking organizations and 
     transnational criminal organizations in the Western 
     Hemisphere that use trade-based money laundering to disguise 
     the proceeds of drug trafficking;
       Whereas the presence of drug traffickers in the United 
     States and their intrinsic connection to international threat 
     networks, as well as the use of licit trade to further their 
     motives, is a national security concern;
       Whereas drug-trafficking organizations frequently use the 
     trade-based money laundering scheme known as the ``Black 
     Market Peso Exchange'' to move their ill-gotten gains out of 
     the United States and into Central and South America;
       Whereas United States ports and U.S. Customs and Border 
     Protection do not have the capacity to properly examine the 
     60,000,000 shipping containers that pass through United 
     States ports annually, with only 2 to 5 percent of that cargo 
     actively inspected;
       Whereas trade-based money laundering can only be combated 
     effectively if the intelligence community, law enforcement 
     agencies, the Department of State, the Department of Defense, 
     the Department of the Treasury, the Department of Homeland 
     Security, the Department of Justice, and the private sector 
     work together;
       Whereas drug-trafficking organizations, terrorist 
     organizations, and other transnational criminal organizations 
     disguise the proceeds of their illegal activities behind 
     sophisticated mechanisms that operate seamlessly between 
     licit and illicit trade and financial transactions, making it 
     almost impossible to address without international 
     cooperation; and
       Whereas the United States has established Trade 
     Transparency Units with 18 partner countries, including with 
     major drug-producing and transit countries, to facilitate the 
     increased exchange of import-export data to combat trade-
     based money laundering: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that--
       (1) the activities of transnational criminal organizations 
     and their networks, and the means by which such organizations 
     and networks move and launder their ill-gotten gains, such as 
     through the use of illicit economies, illicit trade, and 
     trade-based money laundering, pose a threat to the national 
     interests and national security of the United States and 
     allies and partners of the United States around the world;
       (2) in addition to considering the countering of illicit 
     economies, illicit trade, and trade-based money laundering as 
     a national priority and committing to detect, address, and 
     prevent such activities, the President should--
       (A) continue to assess, in the periodic national risk 
     assessments on money laundering, terrorist financing, and 
     proliferation financing conducted by the Department of the 
     Treasury, the ongoing risks of trade-based money laundering;
       (B) finalize the assessment described in the Explanatory 
     Statement accompanying the Financial Services and General 
     Government Appropriations Act, 2020 (division C of the 
     Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2020 (Public Law 116-93)), 
     which directs the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network of the 
     Department of the Treasury to thoroughly assess the risk that 
     trade-based money laundering and other forms of illicit 
     finance pose to national security;
       (C) work expeditiously to develop, finalize, and execute a 
     strategy, as described in section 6506 of the Anti-Money 
     Laundering Act of 2020 (title LXV of division F of Public Law 
     116-283; 134 Stat. 4631), drawing on the multiple instruments 
     of United States national power available, to counter--
       (i) the activities of transnational criminal organizations, 
     including illicit trade and trade-based money laundering; and
       (ii) the illicit economies such organizations operate in;
       (D) coordinate with international partners to implement 
     that strategy, exhorting those partners to strengthen their 
     approaches to combating transnational criminal organizations; 
     and
       (E) review that strategy on a biennial basis and improve it 
     as needed in order to most effectively address illicit 
     economies, illicit trade, and trade-based money laundering by 
     exploring the use of emerging technologies and other new 
     avenues for interrupting and putting an end to those 
     activities; and
       (3) the Trade Transparency Unit program of the Department 
     of Homeland Security should take steps to strengthen its 
     work, including in countries that the Department of State has 
     identified as major money laundering jurisdictions under 
     section 489 of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 
     2291h).

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