Money transmitting businesses (Was: "A champion of liberty speaks about privacy, cash smuggling")

[Declan McCullagh]

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 at kozubik.com - http://www.kozubik.com