https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/senate-bill/1241/text#toc-idea0e9489fc8f46379f95bb56c8bbbda5

This is a new bill that was introduced on the floor of the US Senate entitled,
“Combating Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing, and Counterfeiting Act of 2017.”

It basically says everything is evil..

1. Cash is Evil
2. Bitcoin/Crypto is Evil
3. Prepaid Phones are Evil
4. Gift Cards/Vouchers/Coupons are Evil

These people are certifiably insane. Among the bill’s sweeping provisions, the government aims to greatly extend its authority to seize your assets through “Civil Asset Forfeiture”.

Civil Asset Forfeiture rules allow the government to take whatever they want from you, without a trial or any due process.

This new bill adds a laundry list of offenses for which they can legally seize your assets… all of which pertain to money laundering and other financial crimes.

Here’s the thing, though: they’ve also vastly expanded on the definition of such ‘financial crimes’, including failure to fill out a form if you happen to be transporting more than $10,000 worth of ‘monetary instruments’.

Have too much cash? You’d better tell the government.

If not, they’re authorizing themselves in this bill to seize not just the money you didn’t report, but ALL of your assets and bank accounts.

They even go so far as to specifically name “safety deposit boxes” among the various assets that they can seize if you don’t fill out the form.

This is unbelievable on so many levels.

It’s crazy to begin with that these people are so consumed by the fact that someone has $10,000 in cash.

But it’s even crazier that they’re threatening to take EVERYTHING that you own merely for not filling out a piece of paper, without any due process whatsoever.

Oh, and on top of civil asset forfeiture penalties, there are also criminal penalties.

Right now according to current law they can imprison you for up to FIVE YEARS for not filling out the form. Five years.

But apparently that doesn’t go far enough so this bill aims to double the criminal penalty to TEN years in prison.

Further, their bill wants to pull any business which “issues” cryptocurrency under the anti-money laundering regulatory umbrella.

Here’s where these people demonstrate that they have no idea what they’re talking about.

No one “issues” Bitcoin. There’s no Bitcoin central bank. There’s no Chairman of Bitcoin who decides on a whim to increase the supply.

Bitcoin is created automatically amounts that are predetermined by its code. It’s software.

So the Senate is essentially trying to force the Bitcoin core software to comply with money laundering regulations.

The bill also attempts to drop a major bomb on Bitcoin by including it in the list of monetary instruments that must be reported when entering or leaving the US.

https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/senate-bill/1241/text#toc-idea0e9489fc8f46379f95bb56c8bbbda5

This is a new bill that was introduced on the floor of the US Senate entitled,
“Combating Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing, and Counterfeiting Act of 2017.”

It basically says everything is evil..

1. Cash is Evil
2. Bitcoin/Crypto is Evil
3. Prepaid Phones are Evil
4. Gift Cards/Vouchers/Coupons are Evil

These people are certifiably insane. Among the bill’s sweeping provisions, the government aims to greatly extend its authority to seize your assets through “Civil Asset Forfeiture”.

Civil Asset Forfeiture rules allow the government to take whatever they want from you, without a trial or any due process.

This new bill adds a laundry list of offenses for which they can legally seize your assets… all of which pertain to money laundering and other financial crimes.

Here’s the thing, though: they’ve also vastly expanded on the definition of such ‘financial crimes’, including failure to fill out a form if you happen to be transporting more than $10,000 worth of ‘monetary instruments’.

Have too much cash? You’d better tell the government.

If not, they’re authorizing themselves in this bill to seize not just the money you didn’t report, but ALL of your assets and bank accounts.

They even go so far as to specifically name “safety deposit boxes” among the various assets that they can seize if you don’t fill out the form.

This is unbelievable on so many levels.

It’s crazy to begin with that these people are so consumed by the fact that someone has $10,000 in cash.

But it’s even crazier that they’re threatening to take EVERYTHING that you own merely for not filling out a piece of paper, without any due process whatsoever.

Oh, and on top of civil asset forfeiture penalties, there are also criminal penalties.

Right now according to current law they can imprison you for up to FIVE YEARS for not filling out the form. Five years.

But apparently that doesn’t go far enough so this bill aims to double the criminal penalty to TEN years in prison.

Further, their bill wants to pull any business which “issues” cryptocurrency under the anti-money laundering regulatory umbrella.

Here’s where these people demonstrate that they have no idea what they’re talking about.

No one “issues” Bitcoin. There’s no Bitcoin central bank. There’s no Chairman of Bitcoin who decides on a whim to increase the supply.

Bitcoin is created automatically amounts that are predetermined by its code. It’s software.

So the Senate is essentially trying to force the Bitcoin core software to comply with money laundering regulations.

The bill also attempts to drop a major bomb on Bitcoin by including it in the list of monetary instruments that must be reported when entering or leaving the US.

Crawl back in your cave, roll and tote a few and go to sleep...

In asset forfeiture, there is due process. There is a court hearing where the government has to prove a certain level of wrongdoing, it isn't the case that they just seize it and it is gone forever.

There is a lot of text to read in this proposal and it appears to modify bits of other laws so we don't even have the full law to refer to in the link without doing more digging. I am wondering how you arrived at all the conclusions you came to? What I could tell from reading through it was that they sure like to put rules on money transactions, but couldn't find anything to suggest they are doing anything about just possessing money. Did I miss it somewhere?

I wonder if there is a better answer to fighting money laundering than all of this?

In asset forfeiture, there is due process. There is a court hearing where the government has to prove a certain level of wrongdoing, it isn't the case that they just seize it and it is gone forever.

There is a lot of text to read in this proposal and it appears to modify bits of other laws so we don't even have the full law to refer to in the link without doing more digging. I am wondering how you arrived at all the conclusions you came to? What I could tell from reading through it was that they sure like to put rules on money transactions, but couldn't find anything to suggest they are doing anything about just possessing money. Did I miss it somewhere?

I wonder if there is a better answer to fighting money laundering than all of this?

This was a copy and paste.  Saw it somewhere and it looked interesting.  Read only the summery of the bill in question to corroborate.  Sorry should of posted that in the OP.  Did it last minute at work.

Learned a long time ago not to worry about things I have no control over, which is most things.  If it happens, it happens.  I am not rich enough to fall into the storing or carrying $10k in cash category.