Anti-Money Laundering and the US Patriot Act

Anti-Money Laundering (AML) laws date back to 1970, when Congress passed the Bank Secrecy Act. The BSA requires banks and many other financial institutions to file currency reports with the U.S. and identify people engaged in financial transactions.

Laws have expanded, most importantly by the Patriot Act of 2001 (Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act). Following the terrorist activity of 9-11, the USA Patriot act was signed into law by President George W. Bush on October 26, 2001. The Act criminalized the financing of terrorism and augmented AML laws by requiring strengthened customer identification procedures, prohibiting interactions with foreign shell banks, requiring enhanced due diligence procedures, and increasing penalties for violations.

Parts of the Patriot Act have expired however the legislation regarding counter-terrorist financing and AML still remains. The USA Freedom Act imposes new limitations to the intelligence agencies on the bulk collection of metadata on US citizens.

This course goes into detail on the portions of the USA Patriot act that address money laundering.