The Failure of Anti-Money Laundering Laws: Current System Is Costly and Misallocates Law Enforcement Resources According to New CF&P Video
(Washington, D.C., February 22, 2010) A new video released today by the Center for Freedom and Prosperity Foundation
(CF&P) discusses how anti-money laundering laws, which require banks to snoop on their customers, are costly and ineffective.
"Anti-money laundering laws result in millions of reports on innocent bank customers and genuine hardship for many people who are improperly treated as potential criminals," said CF&P Foundation President Andrew Quinlan.
"Anti-money laundering laws create a haystack of financial information, so it is nearly impossible for law enforcement officials to find needles of criminal activity," said Dan Mitchell of the Cato Institute. "The time has come for a dramatic reassessment of these laws so that resources can be allocated where they will best fulfill the legitimate government
function of protecting life, liberty and property."
Executive summary:
This Center for Freedom and Prosperity video examines anti-money laundering laws and finds that they are expensive and intrusive. These costs might be acceptable if the result was less crime, but this
mini-documentary reveals that anti-money laundering policies are ineffective. As a former Reagan Administration official remarked, they undermine the fight against crime by misallocating law enforcement
resources.