U.S. Creates Multiagency Task Force to Investigate Laundering by Foreign Politicians

The United States government used provisions from the USA PATRIOT Act to create new multiagency task forces to investigate money laundering allegations in six Latin American countries. Task forces are composed from the departments of Justice, State and Treasury, with many teams operating out of Miami. Their work focuses on white collar crime and they have indicted many high-level foreign officials, including Manuel Noriega of Panama. This new effort reflects the Bush administration?s continuation of a Clinton policy aimed at helping foreign governments recover assets brought to the U.S. by foreign officials. The USA PATRIOT Act has expanded these efforts by adding predicate crimes to the list of prosecutable offenses.