Title: A resolution 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.
Policy area: Finance and Financial Sector

Summary:
This resolution supports efforts to combat illicit economies, illicit trade, and trade-based money laundering through risk assessments, strategies, and coordination with international partners.

[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 610 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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117th CONGRESS
  2d Session
S. RES. 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.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                              May 3, 2022

   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

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
 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.

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;
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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