A pair of U.S. senators introduced legislation Thursday that would allow federal prosecutors to append money laundering charges to certain criminal violations of wildlife trafficking laws. The Wildlife Trafficking and Enforcement Act, authored by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), would reclassify violations of laws designed to protect African wildlife from poachers and black-market profiteers as "specified unlawful activities" alongside kidnapping, bribery, bank fraud, terrorist financing and dozens of other predicate crimes. If adopted, the measure could expand the maximum sentences for violations of the Endangered Species Act, the African Elephant Conservation Act and the Rhinoceros and Tiger Conservation Act...
A longtime congressional advocate of tough financial crime laws will soon use his new Senate chairmanship to push a measure that would expand the U.S. list of specified unlawful activities.
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