Investigating Money Laundering And Terrorist Financing:
Federal Law Enforcement Agencies Face Continuing Coordination Challenges
GAO-04-710T: Published: May 11, 2004. Publicly Released: May 11, 2004.
Additional Materials:
- Highlights Page:
- Full Report:
- Accessible Text:
Contact:
(202) 512-8816
contact@gao.gov
Office of Public Affairs
(202) 512-4800
youngc1@gao.gov
Money laundering provides the fuel for terrorists, drug dealers, arms traffickers, and other criminals to operate and expand their activities. GAO focused on two issues. The first is whether the nation's annual National Money Laundering Strategy has served as a useful mechanism for guiding federal law enforcement efforts to combat money laundering and terrorist financing. Unless reauthorized by the Congress, the annual requirement ended with the 2003 strategy. The second issue is the implementation status of a May 2003 Memorandum of Agreement, signed by the Attorney General and the Secretary of Homeland Security, that was designed to enhance the coordination of terrorist financing investigations conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
GAO's September 2003 report noted that the annual strategy generally has not served as a useful mechanism for guiding the coordination of federal law enforcement agencies' efforts to combat money laundering and terrorist financing. For example, although expected to have a central role in coordinating law enforcement efforts, interagency task forces created specifically to address money laundering and related financial crimes generally had not yet been structured and operating as intended and had not reached their expectations for leveraging investigative resources or creating investigative synergies. Also, while the Departments of the Treasury and Justice had made progress on some strategy initiatives designed to enhance interagency coordination of money laundering investigations, most initiatives had not met expectations. Moreover, even though adjusted in 2002 to reflect a new federal priority--combating terrorist financing--the strategy did not address agency and task force roles and interagency coordination procedures for investigating terrorist financing, which contributed to duplication of efforts and disagreements over which agency should lead investigations. GAO's February 2004 report noted that the FBI and ICE had implemented or taken concrete steps to implement most of the key provisions in the May 2003 Memorandum of Agreement on terrorist financing investigations. For instance, the agencies had developed collaborative procedures to determine whether applicable ICE investigations or financial crimes leads may be related to terrorism or terrorist financing--and, if so, determine whether these investigations or leads should thereafter be pursued under the auspices of the FBI. However, as of May 2, 2004, the FBI and ICE had not yet issued a joint report on the implementation status of the Agreement, which was required 4 months from its effective date. Also, GAO noted that the FBI and ICE have confronted and will continue to confront a number of operational and organizational challenges, such as ensuring that the financial crimes expertise and other investigative competencies of both agencies are appropriately and effectively utilized.
Feb 24, 2021
-
Pregnant Women in DOJ Custody:
U.S. Marshals Service and Bureau of Prisons Should Better Align Policies with National GuidelinesGAO-21-147: Published: Jan 25, 2021. Publicly Released: Feb 24, 2021.
Oct 26, 2020
-
Intellectual Property:
CBP Has Taken Steps to Combat Counterfeit Goods in Small Packages but Could Streamline EnforcementGAO-20-692: Published: Sep 24, 2020. Publicly Released: Oct 26, 2020.
Sep 30, 2020
-
Federal Criminal Restitution:
Department of Justice Has Ongoing Efforts to Improve Its Oversight of the Collection of Restitution and Tracking the Use of Forfeited AssetsGAO-20-676R: Published: Sep 30, 2020. Publicly Released: Sep 30, 2020.
Sep 10, 2020
-
Federal Tactical Teams:
Characteristics, Training, Deployments, and InventoryGAO-20-710: Published: Sep 10, 2020. Publicly Released: Sep 10, 2020.
Sep 8, 2020
-
VA Police:
Actions Needed to Improve Data Completeness and Accuracy on Use of Force Incidents at Medical CentersGAO-20-599: Published: Sep 8, 2020. Publicly Released: Sep 8, 2020.
Aug 13, 2020
-
Anti-Money Laundering:
FinCEN Should Enhance Procedures for Implementing and Evaluating Geographic Targeting OrdersGAO-20-546: Published: Jul 14, 2020. Publicly Released: Aug 13, 2020.
Jul 29, 2020
-
Federal Prison Industries:
Actions Needed to Evaluate Program EffectivenessGAO-20-505: Published: Jul 29, 2020. Publicly Released: Jul 29, 2020.
Jul 8, 2020
-
Gun Control:
DOJ Can Further Improve Guidance on Federal Firearm Background Check RecordsGAO-20-528: Published: Jul 8, 2020. Publicly Released: Jul 8, 2020.
Jun 22, 2020
-
Federal Prisons:
Additional Analysis Needed to Determine Whether to Issue Pepper Spray to Minimum Security PrisonsGAO-20-342: Published: Jun 22, 2020. Publicly Released: Jun 22, 2020.
May 26, 2020
-
Bureau of Prisons:
Improved Planning Would Help BOP Evaluate and Manage Its Portfolio of Drug Education and Treatment ProgramsGAO-20-423: Published: May 26, 2020. Publicly Released: May 26, 2020.
Looking for more? Browse all our products here