In Rem Alternatives to Extradition for Money Laundering

Keith R. Fisher

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Loyola of Los Angeles International and Comparative Law Review

Abstract

This paper reviews the scope of the problems caused by money laundering activities of organized crime - problems that have rendered extradition an essentially useless tool of law enforcement and that leave in rem approaches as the only viable method of combating transnational criminal conduct that can be effected by the push of a button and the consequent flow of electrons. The paper then reviews the international and U.S. domestic legal regimes relating to asset forfeiture (including a variety of multilateral and bilateral conventions, initiatives such as the Financial Action Task Force under the aegis of the OECD, similar initiatives in Europe and the Caribbean, and such U.S. statutes as the Bank Secrecy Act, the Money Laundering Control Act, the Crime Control Act, the Annunzio-Wylie Anti-Money Laundering Act, and the USA PATRIOT Act). After identifying the strengths and weaknesses of those regimes, the paper outlines the advantages value confiscation regimes enjoy over object confiscation regimes and offers a few modest suggestions for shoring up obvious weaknesses.

First Page

409

Last Page

456

Publication Date

Summer 2003

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