Money Spending or Money Laundering: The Fine Line between Legal and Illegal Financial Transactions

In this Article, I will examine the history of legislative efforts to combat money laundering in the United States, including the intent and purpose of the Money Laundering Control Act 1986.13 I will then analyze how courts have addressed the challenge of characterizing dual-purpose transactions by developing factors whose presence may show that a transaction was entered into with an intent to conceal. In addition to providing an analysis of several cases where courts grappled with the challenges of characterizing dual-purpose transactions, I will also examine the development of a “heightened” evidentiary standard that is often applied to scrutinize whether sufficient evidence exits to characterize a dual-purpose transaction as money laundering rather than money spending. Finally, I will make recommendations for minimizing the challenges of characterizing dual-purpose transactions.