In the criminal law of the United States, a predicate crime or offense is a crime which is a component of a larger crime. The larger crime may be racketeering, money laundering, financing of terrorism, etc. [1]
For example, to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act (RICO), a person must "engage in a pattern of racketeering activity", and in particular, must have committed at least two predicate crimes within 10 years. [2] These include bribery, blackmail, extortion, fraud, theft, money laundering, counterfeiting, and illegal gambling. [3]
Crimes are predicate to a larger crime if they have a similar purpose to the larger crime. For example, using false identification is itself a crime; it may be a predicate offense to larceny or fraud if it is used to withdraw money from a bank account.
Predicate crimes can be charged separately or together with the larger crime. [4]
Crimes that are specific to anti-money laundering (AML) programs have been referred to as Predicate Offenses (or Predicate Crimes) since the establishment of the FATF 40 Recommendations in October, 2004. [5] Since 2004, the FATF have updated the 40 Recommendations to expand the list of predicate offences. Financial intelligence units in the European Union and United States have created legislation to mirror or expand these offences. In the United States, these offences were initially created by the Bank Secrecy Act of 1970 and have subsequently been expanded by the USA PATRIOT Act of 2001. The predicate offences are codified in 18 USC § 1956(c)(7). [6] With the passage of the 6th EU Money Laundering Directive, [7] the European Union has now adopted as standard set of Predicate Offences to mitigate loopholes in member state AML legislation.
Offense [8] | EU 6MLD | FinCEN | FATF 2018 | FATF 2004 |
---|---|---|---|---|
Arms Trafficking | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Arson | ✓ | |||
Concealment of Assets | ✓ | |||
Corruption & Bribery | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Counterfeiting Currency | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Counterfeiting Products | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Cybercrime | ✓ | |||
Drug Trafficking | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Environmental Crime | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Extortion | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Forgery | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
Fraud | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Human Trafficking / Migrant Smuggling | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Insider Trading & Market Manipulation | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
Kidnapping, Illegal Restraint, and Hostage-taking | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Organized Crime / Racketeering | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Piracy | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Robbery or Theft | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Sexual Exploitation | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Smuggling | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Tax Crimes | ✓ | ✓ | ||
Terrorism / Terrorist Financing | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Trafficking in Stolen Goods | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Violent Crime (Murder & Grievous Bodily Injury) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
"Predicate" as an adjective originally means "something said of a subject", originally from Latin praedicare 'to proclaim or make known'. In logic, it came to mean to assert something. In U.S. legal usage, it is a "basis or foundation on which something rests". [9]
The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act is a United States federal law that provides for extended criminal penalties and a civil cause of action for acts performed as part of an ongoing criminal organization.
Extortion is the practice of obtaining benefit through coercion. In most jurisdictions it is likely to constitute a criminal offence; the bulk of this article deals with such cases. Robbery is the simplest and most common form of extortion, although making unfounded threats in order to obtain an unfair business advantage is also a form of extortion.
Confiscation is a legal form of seizure by a government or other public authority. The word is also used, popularly, of spoliation under legal forms, or of any seizure of property as punishment or in enforcement of the law.
In financial regulation, a Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) or Suspicious Transaction Report (STR) is a report made by a financial institution about suspicious or potentially suspicious activity as required under laws designed to counter money laundering, financing of terrorism and other financial crimes. The criteria to decide when a report must be made varies from country to country, but generally is any financial transaction that either a) does not make sense to the financial institution; b) is unusual for that particular client; or c) appears to be done only for the purpose of hiding or obfuscating another, separate transaction. The report is filed with that country's financial crime enforcement agency, which is typically a specialist agency designed to collect and analyse transactions and then report these to relevant law enforcement teams.
The Financial Action Task Force (on Money Laundering) (FATF), also known by its French name, Groupe d'action financière (GAFI), is an intergovernmental organisation founded in 1989 on the initiative of the G7 to develop policies to combat money laundering and to maintain certain interest. In 2001, its mandate was expanded to include terrorism financing.
Racketeering is a type of organized crime in which the persons set up a coercive, fraudulent, extortionary, or otherwise illegal coordinated scheme or operation to repeatedly or consistently collect a profit. Narrowly, it means coercive or fraudulent business practices; broadly, it can mean any criminal organization with ongoing profit, as defined in the 1970 U.S. RICO Act, which aimed to curtail the power of the Mafia and other organized crime.
Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) is an Australian government financial intelligence agency responsible for monitoring financial transactions to identify money laundering, organised crime, tax evasion, welfare fraud and terrorism financing. AUSTRAC was established in 1989 under the Financial Transaction Reports Act 1988. It implements in Australia the recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF), which Australia joined in 1990.
Anti-Money Laundering (AML) refers to a set of policies and practices to ensure that financial institutions and other regulated entities prevent, detect, and report financial crime and especially money laundering activities. Anti-Money Laundering is often paired with the action against terrorism financing, or Combating the Financing of Terrorism, using the acronym AML-CFT. In addition arrangements intended to ensure that banks and other relevant firms duly report suspicious transactions, the AML policy framework includes financial intelligence units and relevant law enforcement operations.
Terrorism financing is the provision of funds or providing financial support to individual terrorists or non-state actors.
Asset forfeiture or asset seizure is a form of confiscation of assets by the authorities. In the United States, it is a type of criminal-justice financial obligation. It typically applies to the alleged proceeds or instruments of crime. This applies, but is not limited, to terrorist activities, drug-related crimes, and other criminal and even civil offenses. Some jurisdictions specifically use the term "confiscation" instead of forfeiture. The alleged purpose of asset forfeiture is to disrupt criminal activity by confiscating assets that potentially could have been beneficial to the individual or organization.
Transnational organized crime (TOC) is organized crime coordinated across national borders, involving groups or markets of individuals working in more than one country to plan and execute illegal business ventures. In order to achieve their goals, these criminal groups use systematic violence and corruption. Common transnational organized crimes include conveying drugs, conveying arms, trafficking for sex, toxic waste disposal, materials theft and poaching.
The Financial Action Task Force blacklist, is a blacklist maintained by the Financial Action Task Force.
Anti-Money Laundering is software used in the finance and legal industries to help companies comply with the legal requirements for financial institutions and other regulated entities to prevent or report money laundering activities. AML software can facilitate faster and more accurate compliance and investigations.
Financial crime is crime committed against property, involving the unlawful conversion of the ownership of property to one's own personal use and benefit. Financial crimes may involve fraud ; theft; scams or confidence tricks; tax evasion; bribery; sedition; embezzlement; identity theft; money laundering; and forgery and counterfeiting, including the production of counterfeit money and consumer goods.
In financial regulation, a politically exposed person (PEP) is one who has been entrusted with a prominent public function. A PEP generally presents a higher risk for potential involvement in bribery and corruption by virtue of their position and the influence they may hold. The terms "politically exposed person" and senior foreign political figure are often used interchangeably, particularly in international forums.
The Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering (APG) is a FATF style regional inter-governmental (international) body, the members of which are committed to effectively implementing the international standards against money laundering, the combating the financing of terrorism (CFT) and financing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. APG was founded in 1997 in Bangkok, Thailand, and currently consists of 42 member jurisdictions in the Asia-Pacific region and a number of observer jurisdictions and international/regional observer organisations.
The Travel Act or International Travel Act of 1961, 18 U.S.C. § 1952, is a Federal criminal statute which forbids the use of the U.S. mail, or interstate or foreign travel, for the purpose of engaging in certain specified criminal acts.
The Council of Europe Convention on Laundering, Search, Seizure and Confiscation of the Proceeds from Crime and on the Financing of Terrorism, also known as the Warsaw Convention or CETS 198, is a Council of Europe convention which aims to facilitate international co-operation and mutual assistance in investigating crime and tracking down, seizing and confiscating the proceeds thereof.
The Qatar Financial Information Unit (QFIU) is a Qatari government regulatory agency responsible for financial intelligence efforts to combat money laundering and financing of terrorism. Like other national Financial Intelligence Units (FIU) around the world, it requires banks, investment companies, insurers and other financial institutions to report suspicious financial transactions. QFIU then analyzes the information and disseminates the relevant data to law enforcement authorities for further investigation and action.
The Georgia RICO Act is a law in the U.S. state of Georgia that makes a form of racketeering a felony. Originally passed on March 20, 1980, it is known for being broader than the corresponding federal law, such as not requiring a pecuniary profit.
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