The bill has been in flux, and nobody has had time to read it in detail. You can scroll through it yerself: http://www.politechbot.com/docs/usa.act.final.102401.html ``(b) Domestic Coin and Currency Transactions Involving Nonfinancial Trades or Businesses.--No person shall, for the purpose of evading the report requirements of section 5333 or any regulation prescribed under such section-- ``(1) cause or attempt to cause a nonfinancial trade or business to fail to file a report required under section 5333 or any regulation prescribed under such section; [...] ``(3) structure or assist in structuring, or attempt to structure or assist in structuring, any transaction with 1 or more nonfinancial trades or businesses.'. [...] (1) In general.--Whoever, with the intent to evade a currency reporting requirement under section 5316, knowingly conceals more than $10,000 in currency or other monetary instruments on the person of such individual or in any conveyance, article of luggage, merchandise, or other con transport or transfer such currency or monetary instruments from a place within the United States to a place outside of the United States, or from a place outside the United States to a place within the United States, shall be guilty of a currency smuggling offense and subject to punishment pursuant to subsection (b). See also: ``(a) Whoever knowingly conducts, controls, manages, supervises, directs, or owns all or part of an unlicensed money transmitting business, shall be fined in accordance with this title or imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both. ``(b) As used in this section-- ``(1) the term `unlicensed money transmitting business' means a money transmitting business which affects interstate or foreign commerce in any manner or degree and-- ``(A) is operated without an appropriate money transmitting license in a State where such operation is punishable as a misdemeanor or a felony under State law, whether or not the defendant knew that the operation was required to be licensed or that the operation was so punishable; I wonder how this would affect various alternative currency systems: ``(2) the term `money transmitting' includes transferring funds on behalf of the public by any and all means including but not limited to transfers within this country or to locations abroad by wire, check, draft, facsimile, or courier; and -Declan On Wed, Oct 24, 2001 at 07:48:03PM -0700, John Kozubik wrote:
The bill is not perfect. I am sorry that, for example, we excluded making it a crime to smuggle over $10,000 interstate. We included it for overseas, but it was not included for interstate. Nevertheless, this is an excellent bill.
Can someone clarify the definition, in this context, of "smuggling" ? Does this mean that $10,000 in cash can no longer be taken out of the country, or does it mean that it can no longer be taken out of the country in a secretive manner ?
For as long as I have been traveling internationally, I have been required to declare all cash amounts larger than $10,000. Does this mean that previously it was not a crime to not make such a declaration, and now it is ?
----- John Kozubik - john@kozubik.com - http://www.kozubik.com