
23
A man who has never gone to school may steal from a freight
car, but if he has a university education, he may steal the
whole railroad.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Prior to 1986, the act of money laundering wasn’t a crime in
the United States. The nancial transactions that formed a
money laundering scheme might be the subject of a criminal
investigation or prosecution under some other statute, but the
money laundering process itself was not illegal.
By 1986, it was becoming increasingly obvious to Congress
as well as the law enforcement community that money launder-
ing had evolved into a central element of organized criminal
enterprises.