Project Chair: William H. Webster
Project Director: Arnaud de Borchgrave
Task Force Chair: Steve Kroll, FinCEN, DoT
Task Force Director: Frank J. Cilluffo, CSIS

The Financial Crimes Task Force will assess the destabilizing effects of financial criminal activity on the nation's security and economic and financial infrastructure. With profits close to $1 trillion per year, global organized crime has become arguably the world's fastest growing business. The lifeblood of criminal activity is money, and thus the modus operandi and mechanisms exploited to make illegitimate proceeds appear legitimate is the ultimate objective of every criminal organization. To level the playing field law enforcement must strike where it hurts: the wallet. Aside from laundering and asset seizure concerns, the Financial Crimes Task Force will also analyze the counterfeiting of credit cards and tender aimed at economically sabotaging US corporate and government interests.

A second component of the financial crimes task force will examine intellectual property rights related crimes, including software piracy and product counterfeiting. These activities have become so lucrative and carry such a low risk that some West Coast Asian organized crime groups have abandoned the heroin trade and moved into software piracy and product counterfeiting entirely. This issue is of particular significance to the U.S. economy, software and entertainment are our lead job-creators and exporters.

Financial Crimes Task Force Membership

Nathan Adams, Reader's Digest
Robert J. Albano, Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette
J. Carter Beese, Alexander Brown & Sons
Michael Bopp, Senate PSI
Russell J. Bruemmer, Wilmer, Cutler, & Pickering
Roseanna DeMaria, McCaw Cellular Communications
Stuart M. Gerson, Kemper Financial Services
David Iganatius, The Washington Post
Walter Longanecker, Merrill Lynch
Jordan A. Luke, Davis Polk & Wardwell
Philip Manuel, Philip Manuel Resource Group
Paul Miyahara, Internal Revenue Service
Dan Morales, Texas State Attorney General
Alan Murray, Wall Street Journal
Ethan Nadelmann, Lindesmith Center
William O'Shea, Reuters America Inc.
Richard D. Paisner, TEI Industries
Greg M. Passic, Department of Treasury
Harvey L Pitt, Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson
Elizabeth Rindskopf, Former General Counsel, CIA
Laurie Schaeffer, House Banking Committee
Laura K. Shanley, Ernst and Young, LLP
Elisabeth N. Spector, Legg Mason, Inc.
David Vogt, Department of the Treasury
Jane Wexton, Citibank North America