By the time the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act became law, this amendment had disappeared.”
When looking for a definition of the term “proceed”, the very same Fraud Enforcement and Recovery
Act clearly defines that “the term “proceeds” means any property derived from or obtained or retained,
directly or indirectly, through some form of unlawful activity, including the gross receipts of such
activity.” ”® Retaining property through some form of unlawful activity seems to cover the non-
payment of tax due.
As the US is a common law country, courts have tried to remedy the shortcoming of the legislator. The
most important decision seems to have been taken by the US Supreme Court, the so called
Pasquantino decision. Some practitioners interpret it as a decision in which the Supreme Court “de-
termined that a foreign government has a valuable property right in collecting taxes, and that right may
be enforced in a U.S. court of law", others hold that "the Court held that a foreign government has a
valuable right in collecting taxes, and that if the tax evasion proceeds are used to purchase assets the
775 A few seem to
parties involved face criminal prosecution for tax crimes and money laundering (...)
be of the same opinion as the latter, but use a less specific language like “Tax evasion with income
from legitimate sources is considered a predicate crime for money laundering in the United States, if
intent to violate federal law can be proven”. This could lead to the conclusion that foreign tax crimes
are not predicate offence to ML in the US. The IMF also concluded in June 2015 that serious tax
crimes are not predicate offence to ML in the US.” As there was no amendment to title 18 U.S.C. sec-
tion 1956 (a)(2)(A) since June 2015, the conclusion seems to hold until today.
75 See the public law 111-21, available from https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/PLAW-111publ21/html/PLAW-
111publ21.htm, accessed on April 10, 2016.
76 See the public law 111-21, Section 2(f)(1), the website being mentioned in footnote 75.
7 Andrew H. Weinstein and Kevin E. Packman, What Private Wealth Attorneys Need to Know About Money
Laundering, Estate Planning Journal, 2010, p. 2, available from
https://www.hklaw.com/files/Publication/c9d76047 -6b77-4532-8390-
8e04014c1c2e/Presentation/PublicationAttachment/4fd2780f-75de-459b-9c6b-fc15a2bde3e3/55014.PDF, ac-
cessed on April 10, 2016.
7 Gary S. Wolfe, Esq., Tax Evasion and Money Laundering: US Real Estate, p.2, available from
http://www.ustaxfs.com/tax-evasion-and-money-laundering-us-real-estate/, accessed on April 10, 2016.
7 See the “Guide to U.S. Anti-Money Laundering Requirements”, FAQ, 6" edition, published by Protiviti Inc.,
can be downloaded for free from http://www.protiviti.co.uk/en-US/Pages/Anti-Money-Laundering.aspx, ac-
cessed on April 10, 2016.
% See the IMF Country Report No. 15/174 of July 2015 on the United States, footnote 2 on page 5 (AML/CFT
technical note within the IMF's financial sector assessment program FSAP), available from
https://www imf.org/external/pubs/ft/scr/2015/cr15174.pdf, accessed on April 10, 2016.
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