Reactions to Demarche
BRITISH EMBASSY
3100 Massachusetts Avenue NW Washington DC 20008
Telex Domestic USA 89-2370/89-2384
Telex International 64224(WUI)/4 40015(ITT)
Telephone (202) 462-1340
Mr
Richantras 10
Mr Buckysatt 2012
Then Rr
Ja
Russ 17/2
RN Street Esq
ERD
FCO
Your reference
MAX 122/1
Our reference
Date
2 February 1987
23 FEB 107
Mr frreer
Dear
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US MONEY LAUNDERING CONTROL ACT
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Thank you for your letter dated 15 January addressed to Tom Harris with which you forwarded the final draft of a paper on the extra- territorial implications of the US Money Laundering Control Act. Tom and I called on the Departments of Justice and State and on the Treasury Department this afternoon to discuss the points made in the paper and left behind the attached aide memoire.
3/2
2. At each of the meetings we made clear the UK Government's support for the actions taken in the Money Laundering Control Act to combat drug trafficking and abuse. But we emphasised our concern that the extraterritorial provisions of the Act, particularly if implemented insensitively, could lead to friction, and explained our individual points of concern detailed in paragraph 3 of the aide memoire.
3. At the Department of Justice, where we saw James Knapp, a Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Criminal Division, and a number of his colleagues, we were given a sympathetic hearing and assured that the Department of Justice were anxious to avoid conflicts over the extraterritorial provisions of the Act. Mr Knapp claimed that the Administration had recommended that the Act should not apply extraterritorially to offences under the Arms Export Control Act, the Export Administration Act, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act or the Trading with the Enemy Act, but Congress had failed to take up this recommendation, he thought inadvertently. He also referred to the assurances contained in the note handed to Humphrey Maud by Michael Calingaert of the US Embassy on 4 December. He said it was "highly unlikely" that the DOJ would seek to enforce the Act in relation to offences under any of the four statutes referred to above and assured us that "in the unlikely event that they did" we would be fully consulted through diplomatic channels before any action was taken. The DOJ were certainly mindful of the extraterritorial implications of the Act and possible problems this could cause, but they had to reserve the right to punish US citizens who commit offences overseas affecting persons in the United States.
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