[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 197 (Monday, December 19, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7312-S7313]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
SUBMITTED RESOLUTIONS
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SENATE RESOLUTION 874--EXPRESSING THE SENSE OF THE SENATE THAT THE
ACTIVITIES OF TRANSNATIONAL CRIMINAL ORGANIZATIONS, INCLUDING THE USE
OF ILLICIT ECONOMIES, ILLICIT TRADE, AND TRADE-BASED MONEY LAUNDERING,
POSE A RISK TO THE INTERESTS OF THE UNITED STATES AND ALLIES AND
PARTNERS OF THE UNITED STATES AROUND THE WORLD
Mr. CASSIDY (for himself, Mr. Whitehouse, and Mr. Wyden) submitted
the following resolution; which was considered and agreed to:
S. Res 874
Whereas trade-based money laundering is a form of money
laundering that disguises proceeds of crime by moving value
through international trade transactions;
Whereas the transnational nature and complexity of trade-
based money laundering make detection and investigation
difficult;
Whereas drug trafficking organizations, terrorist
organizations, and other transnational criminal organizations
have succeeded at trade-based money laundering despite the
efforts of United States law enforcement;
Whereas trade-based money laundering includes other
offenses such as tax evasion, disruption of markets, profit
loss for businesses, and corruption of government officials;
Whereas trade-based money laundering can result in the
decreased collection of customs duties as a result of
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;
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 security
and the rule of law in countries where it takes place;
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 connection to international threat networks,
as well as the use of licit trade to further their motives;
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 trade-based money laundering can 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
[[Page S7313]]
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 risk to the interests 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 the United States;
(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)), 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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