The Department of Justice is initiating new efforts to stop the flow of “dirty” money polluting the financial system. During his keynote address at the Money Laundering Enforcement Conference of the American Bar and American Bankers’ Associations on October 19, Lanny Breuer, Assistant Attorney General of DOJ’s Criminal Division, announced the establishment of a new Money Laundering and Bank Integrity Unit within the Department of Justice.

According to Mr. Breuer, the new Unit, which will be part of the Criminal Division’s Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Section, will investigate complex national and international criminal cases, with a focus on three specific types of violators: 1) financial institutions, including their officers, managers and employees; 2) “hired gun” professional money launderers; and 3) those who use the latest and most sophisticated money laundering techniques. AAG Breuer stated in his speech that the new Unit will be staffed with “sophisticated, talented and aggressive lawyers” who “know the complicated mechanisms by which money moves through the global financial system,” and “who understand how organized criminal networks work.”