Patriot Act Reach to be Extended

The U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCen) agency hopes to issue final rules in the next 30 days to extend the 2001 USA Patriot Act’s anti-money laundering (AML) and terrorist-financing rules to dealers in precious metals, stones and jewels, the Jewelers Vigilance Committee said. 

These regulations will require most businesses or individuals with $50,000 or more a year in gross revenues to develop a written AML program based on an internal risk assessment.

The program aims to prevent exploitation by those with criminal intent to use the diamonds and jewelry industry to launder illegal funds. There will be a period of six months for companies to comply.

The JVC has worked closely with Treasury and FinCen to communicate the jewelry industry’s needs and to develop guidelines to help jewelers develop effective AML programs.