Money laundering is considered a form of organized crime since one of its key components involves making money from illegal activities and then disguising these funds as legal. Being accused of such activity might not bode well for you, as both federal and New Jersey state laws view it as a serious criminal offense. With that considered, please follow along to find out the degrees of penalties for money laundering and how one of the experienced New Jersey & Pennsylvania criminal defense lawyers at The Vigilante Law Firm, P.C. can help you fight off these charges effectively.
Under what circumstances might I be charged with money laundering?
To re-emphasize, money laundering involves possession, transportation, or participation in transactions involving property that is known or that a reasonable person would believe to be obtained through illegal activities. Therefore, it commonly involved hiding or masking property obtained through illegal means. Plus, evading federal and New Jersey state laws requiring transactions to be properly reported.
You may be ultimately charged with money laundering if a prosecutor can effectively prove that you intended to avoid the said transaction reporting requirement. That is, financial institutions are required to report currency transactions that exceed a certain value. So a prosecutor may have evidence that you divided one currency transaction into smaller amounts to instead make several, separate currency transactions that would be left unreported. They may also unveil that you collaborated with a casino, cash-checking business, or any other business entity to make this happen.
What are the degrees of money laundering penalties in New Jersey?
Essentially, the degree of money laundering penalties you may face depends on the amount of money involved in your organized crime. That is, the New Jersey criminal court judge and jury may tally the sum of your multiple currency transactions associated with your single scheme. Then, the potential penalties read as follows:
- If the amount involved in your scheme was less than $75,000, you may be charged with a third-degree offense:
- You may face a prison term of up to five years.
- You may face a fine of up to $15,000.
- If the amount involved in your scheme was between $75,000 and $500,000, you may be charged with a second-degree offense:
- You may face a prison term of between five to 10 years.
- You may face a fine of up to $150,000.
- If the amount involved in your scheme was more than $500,000, you may be charged with a first-degree offense:
- You may face a prison term of between 10 to 20 years.
- You may face a fine of up to $200,000.
It is also worth mentioning that, unique to the state of New Jersey, a prosecutor may fight to impose an Anti-Money Laundering Profiteering Penalty onto you. This may be their effort to further reduce your chances of profiting from the scheme you participated in. This additional fine may be $75,000, $250,000, or $500,000 for a third-degree, second-degree, or first-degree offense, respectively.
If you require legal representation, look no further than one of the experienced New Jersey & Pennsylvania criminal defense lawyers. The client testimonials and case results on our website speak for themselves, saying that you will not regret hiring the team at The Vigilante Law Firm, P.C.
