Chuck Grassley: “I am pleased today to see this historic piece of legislation will pass the Senate. After much careful work with Senator…”

“I am pleased today to see this historic piece of legislation will pass the Senate. After much careful work with Senator D'Amato, the Treasury Department, and the Justice Department, as well as our colleagues in the other body, we have crafted a bill that I believe will lead to much improved coordination in fighting money laundering. I want to thank everyone involved for their hard work on this legislation. The bill will hit the criminals where they feel it the most--in their pocketbooks. By implementing a strategy on a national level, hundreds of communities across our country will no longer be held hostage by these criminal enterprises. As you know, money laundering involves disguising financial assets so they can be used without detection of the illegal activity that produced them. Through money laundering, the criminal transforms the monetary proceeds derived from the criminal activity into funds with an apparently legal source. Money laundering provides the resources from drug dealers, terrorists, arms dealers, and other criminals to operate and expand their criminal enterprises. Today, experts estimate that money laundering has grown into a $500 billion problem worldwide.”