ASHCROFT TAKES STAND ON LAUNDERING

WASHINGTON -- Attorney General John Ashcroft called on Congress Tuesday to
strengthen laws against money laundering, saying current laws are full of
loopholes that make it difficult to combat organized crime groups smuggling
dirty money in and out of the country.

Ashcroft said the Justice Department plans to ask Congress in the coming
months to update money laundering laws passed in the 1970s. New laws should
target bulk cash smuggling, transporting cash proceeds from drug deals on
highways or airplanes and foreign criminals who smuggle money into the
United States, Ashcroft said.

"Our money laundering laws have not changed significantly since they were
enacted," said Ashcroft in prepared remarks for a conference on organized
crime. "The time has come for Congress to lead once again."

Ashcroft said Congress should:

- --Make bulk cash smuggling a crime. Ashcroft said the only law currently on
the books to combat smuggling is a requirement that shipments of more than
$10,000 by accompanied by a report from the U.S. Customs Service. The
Supreme Court has ruled that failing to file reports is not a serious
enough offense to warrant confiscating the cash, so at worst couriers for
organized crime serve a short jail sentences -- "a virtually meaningless
penalty for a drug trafficking organization," Ashcroft said.

- --Make it a federal offense for people to transport more than $10,000 in
cash proceeds from a criminal offense over highways or on airplanes.
Ashcroft said a court threw out a case in which $10,000 in cash was seized
from the trunk of a car driven by men who had prior drug convictions
because it's not a crime to transport drug money down the highway.

- --Expand money laundering laws to include crimes other than drugs,
terrorism and bank fraud. Ashcroft said federal prosecutors often must turn
down money laundering cases involving corrupt foreign public officials and
organized crime groups because their crimes are not covered under U.S.
money laundering laws.

Ashcroft said the Justice Department may also ask Congress to outlaw wire
transfers of tainted money and the laundering of proceeds from terrorism
and deny U.S. visas to suspected foreign money launderers and their families.

Worldwide money laundering activity is estimated at $1 trillion a year,
with half tied to proceeds of drug trafficking, he said.