Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senators Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) introduced the Combatting Money Laundering in Cyber Crime Act to help the Secret Service better detect and deter cybercrimes. Specifically, this bill would update current law to authorize the Secret Service to investigate new forms of criminal activity involving digital assets.
“The funding of criminal activity through digital assets poses a direct threat to the security and safety of our nation,” said Senator Cortez Masto. “This bipartisan and bicameral bill will allow for the U.S. Secret Service to better investigate new forms of financial crime involving digital assets. I will continue to work across the aisle to protect Nevada’s communities and families.”
“Seedy financial enterprises are often behind crimes in our communities. If we want to get serious about cracking down on money laundering schemes, it’s going to take strong threat assessment capabilities,” said Senator Chuck Grassley. “Putting financial activity on federal law enforcement’s radar like this bill does will improve our capacity to anticipate and prevent crimes.”
The Treasury Department, Department of Justice, and other national security and financial crime experts have warned that digital assets like cryptocurrencies are increasingly being used for money laundering, drug trafficking, ransomware attacks, theft and fraud schemes, terrorist financing, and other crimes. The Secret Service investigates a variety of cybercrimes that could pose a threat to our national security—however, these cybercrimes can be perpetrated through unlicensed money transmitting businesses outside of the Secret Service’s jurisdiction. The Combatting Money Laundering in Cyber Crime Act makes much-needed updates to U.S. law to ensure the Secret Service has full authority to investigate these new types of cybercrimes committed by unlicensed and nontraditional financial institutions. It also requests a progress report on the implementation of Cortez Masto’s FinCEN Improvement Act which passed into law in 2021.
Representatives Scott Fitzgerald (R-Wis.-05), Zach Nunn (R-Iowa-03), Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.-05), and Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.-04) have introduced similar companion legislation in the U.S. House.
You can read the full bill text HERE.
In October, Senator Cortez Masto joined a bipartisan effort asking the Biden Administration to crack down on illicit financing of international terrorism in response to reports that Hamas raised millions in crypto to fund its operations. She’s also cosponsored the Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering Act, which would close loopholes in current law and bring cryptocurrency companies into greater compliance with the anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism frameworks that govern the traditional financial system. She has passed into law her bipartisan legislation to combat money laundering and terrorism by bolstering the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and ensuring it focuses on virtual currencies.
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