CAPITALISM'S ACHILLES HEEL Dirty Money and How to

344 CAPITALISM’S ACHILLES HEEL
In other words, make the case that dirty money or any part of it is good
for the United States. Is it the proceeds of human trafficking, smuggling,
counterfeiting, fraud, theft, or any one of dozens of other types of criminal
proceeds that are vital to the U.S. economy? Make the case, or agree that we
don’t want it.
Second, with responses in hand, congressional committees can conduct
hearings and consider legislation. The United States cannot continue
to be an anchor holding back the full embrace of legal dealings. Congress
has to put all criminal proceeds, domestic and international, under
anti–money laundering legislation. The astounding growth in cross-border
crime in recent decades demands a very firm response from western governments,
and that response can only be taken seriously when 100 percent
of criminally-derived proceeds are legally barred. This should be a nonnegotiable
no-brainer.
This still leaves commercially tax-evading money hanging out there, not
now included as a specified unlawful activity in anti–money laundering legislation
in the United States and in most other countries. Many lawmakers
do not take seriously the issue of tax evasion by corporations and financial
institutions and hesitate to bring strong legislation to bear on generating and
handling money known to be tax evading out of other countries. Timing
may suggest the wisdom of addressing criminal money first, as just discussed,
but eventually tax-evading proceeds spirited out of poorer countries
through cooperation between westerners and non-westerners must be dealt
with as well.
Incredibly complex? On the contrary, what western countries are trying
to do now is incredibly complex. We are trying to close doors to some categories
of dirty money we don’t want while at the same time soliciting and
channeling dirty money we do want. And we have completely failed, achieving
a 99.9 percent failure rate.
How could a policy of “Sorry, we don’t want it” work? Four steps.
1. Banks should be required to inform in writing foreign account holders
that incoming deposits are welcome for money that is legally
earned and transferred and will be legally utilized and not welcome
for funds that do not meet these criteria.
2. Foreign account holders should be required to sign that they have
been so informed and will abide by the bank’s directive.