Circuit split · criminal law
Whether the money-laundering statute's concealment element (18 U.S.C. § 1956(a)(2)(B)(i)) requires proof that the cross-border transportation of funds was designed to conceal the nature, location, source, ownership, or control of the proceeds, or whether merely hiding the funds during transportation suffices
1 federal appellate case on this question, each acknowledging the disagreement in its own words.
- United States v. Cuellar478 F3D 282
Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals · February 2, 2007
“16 It is astounding that the majori *305 ty rewrites the law in this circuit, and creates a circuit split, in such a cavalier and intellectually imprecise manner.” — Creates a split
Empirical analysis of this case →
The provision at issue
18 U.S.C. § 1956 — Laundering of monetary instruments
“(a) (1) Whoever, knowing that the property involved in a financial transaction represents the proceeds of some form of unlawful activity, conducts or attempts to conduct such a financial transaction which in fact involves the proceeds of specified unlawful activity— (A) (i) with the intent to promote the carrying on of specified unlawful activity; or (ii) with intent to engage in conduct constituting a violation of section 7201 or 7206 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986; or (B) knowing that the transaction is designed in whole or in part— …”Read the full section →
The other side of the split
Decisions the acknowledging court(s) named as the opposing or joined side, quoted in the acknowledging opinion's own words.
- Discussed · 3d Cir.United States v. Carr25 F.3d 1194
“Carr, 25 F.3d 1194 (3d Cir.1994), in which defendant made numerous trips to the Cayman Islands and Colombia to deposit quantities of bills of small denominations that had been exchanged for large quantities of fresh $100 bills.” — United States v. Cuellar, acknowledging the split
- DiscussedCihak
“It should be obvious that Cihak’s behavior typified money laundering, as targeted by § 1956, and that Cuellar’s did not.” — United States v. Cuellar, acknowledging the split
What the split turns on
- Statutes:
- 18 U.S.C. § 1956(a)(2)(B)(i)
Cases are grouped by the legal question they announce a split on, classified from the court's own acknowledgment sentence. Verified acknowledgments only. Counter-side decisions are extracted from the acknowledging opinions' own text and linked only when the citation resolves in this corpus. See all circuit splits.