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US Senate Sweetens Pot for AML Whistleblowers

A provision of the U.S. Senate’s omnibus spending bill for 2023 would sweeten the rewards and strengthen the funding mechanism of a program that the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network built to generate tips about anti-money laundering violations and financial crimes.

The provision would revise the program, which FinCEN created pursuant to the AML Act of 2020, to reward whistleblowers who share original, non-public information that leads to assessments of at least $1 million in “penalties, disgorgement and interest” by Treasury or the Justice Department at least 10 percent of the final outlay. Maximum rewards would remain at 30 percent.

Payouts to whistleblowers would be drawn from a new “Financial Integrity Fund” of up to $300 million that Treasury would administer independently of Congress, without need of legislative appropriation.

The provision would separately allocate FinCEN a final operating budget of $190 million for fiscal year 2023, roughly $20 million less than what the White House requested but $30 million more than the bureau’s current funding level. Senators approved the whistleblower provision Dec. 7 before folding the measure into the omnibus spending bill late Monday night.

Congress must pass the spending bill or an extended, continuing resolution by midnight Friday to avoid a government shutdown.

Moneylaundering.com may update this coverage as more information becomes available.
Topics : Anti-money laundering
Source: U.S.: Congress
Document Date: December 20, 2022