Breaking News

A legislative provision within the $95 billion U.S. foreign aid package that President Joe Biden signed Wednesday morning expands the list of crimes that can trigger money laundering designations under the Patriot Act to newly cover synthetic-opioid trafficking.

Through the provision, the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, also known as FinCEN, can now deploy any one of five “special measures” under the 2001 law against foreign financial institutions, foreign accounts or entire categories of transactions that the bureau links to the crime.

The provision also directs FinCEN to issue guidance on the steps U.S. banks and other financial institutions should take to detect, investigate and secretly report payments to and from fentanyl and other synthetic-opioid traffickers, or to and from the third parties that launder their proceeds.