Treasury's Role in combatting Human Trafficking

Human trafficking is a transnational threat that preys on society’s most vulnerable populations and poses significant harm to persons in every sector of the economy. The U.S. Department of the Treasury brings significant financial expertise to the fight against human trafficking and is committed to leveraging the Department’s economic tools to target, disrupt, and counter those who undermine American values and engage in human trafficking.

Tools For Combatting Human Trafficking

Treasury has various tools to support the mission of combating human trafficking, including anti-money laundering (AML) and sanctions authorities. The Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence (TFI) integrates countering the financial operations of human trafficking networks into Treasury’s strategy to safeguard the financial system and combat illicit threats. TFI, through the Office of Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes (TFFC), the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), and the Office of Intelligence Analysis (OIA), coordinates with other Federal agencies, state and local law enforcement, and foreign governments to combat human trafficking.

Prevent

Multilateral Development Banks

Treasury has also committed to leading the fight against human trafficking at the Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs), and has been consistently introducing this issue into development conversation for several years. As a result, the MDBs are integrating anti-human trafficking provisions into their project development and social safeguards into their procurement processes.

On January 9, 2019, President Trump signed into law the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2017. The law requires the U.S. Executive Director of each multilateral development bank to work to develop anti-human trafficking provisions in their bank’s project development, procurement, and evaluation policies.

Protect

Identifying Human Trafficking Networks

Treasury continues to identify and track the activities of human traffickers with data made available through Bank Secrecy Act reporting requirements and other sources. Treasury’s FinCEN published an advisory on human trafficking to help financial institutions identify the movement of human traffickers’ funds and to support law enforcement investigations that use financial intelligence.

In 2018, FinCEN updated its Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) form to include a checkbox for financial institutions to identify potential suspicious activity related to human trafficking. This update to the SAR form helps the financial industry report suspicious activity potentially tied to human trafficking in a more comprehensive way. The update also allows law enforcement to more easily identify potential perpetrators or enablers of human trafficking.

From August 1, 2018, to August 31, 2019, 10,881 Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) have been filed by financial institutions reporting suspicious activities involving human trafficking.

Prosecute

Treasury takes action again human traffickers wherever they may be—at home and abroad. TFFC develops policy, initiatives, and strategies to deploy its full range of financial authorities. OIA, FinCEN, OFAC, and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) collect and analyze financial intelligence and data to identify human traffickers and their networks, disrupt and disable the financial underpinnings of these networks, and support law enforcement investigations that lead to accountability and justice.

Office of Foreign Assets Control

OFAC applies financial sanctions and oversees a range of global sanctions programs that target human trafficking, including several country programs focused on human rights and corruption. These programs also target activities that overlap with human trafficking, including narcotics trafficking, human rights abuse and corruption, malign cyber-enabled activities, terrorism, and transnational organized crime. As a result of U.S. financial sanctions, U.S. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in dealings with the designated (sanctioned) person, and the designated person’s property and interests in property are blocked.

For example, on October 2, 2018, OFAC designated two companies and four individuals in Japan associated with the Yamaguchi-gumi, the largest and most prominent Japanese Yakuza syndicate. The Yakuza is known to profit from nearly all aspects of sexual exploitation: sex trafficking, sex tourism, prostitution, and “mail order” marriages. The Yakuza carries out this exploitation with the help of local crime syndicates in East Asia. Treasury is ramping up pressure on this dangerous Japanese crime syndicate and local gang leaders who profit from sexual exploitation, weapons smuggling, and extortion, among other crimes. By exposing this broad network of front companies and individuals supporting the Yamaguchi-gumi Yakuza syndicate, Treasury intends to disrupt the global financial infrastructure of this illicit transnational criminal organization.

OFAC Press Releases:

Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI)

The Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) division is the law

enforcement arm of the IRS. IRS-CI partners with the Department of Justice, as well as federal, state, local, tribal, and foreign law enforcement to investigate labor trafficking and sex trafficking cases from a financial perspective. IRS-CI special agents and professional staff identify and trace the cash, electronic funds, virtual currency, real estate, and other assets generated by human trafficking in order to build criminal cases within their jurisdiction and potentially seize and ultimately forfeit those criminal proceeds, which may then be returned to the victims in the form of restitution.

IRS-CI collaborated in an investigation led by the Anti-Trafficking Coordination Team (ACTeam) in Oregon, which included IRS-CI , Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), the Diplomatic Security Service, and the Department of Labor Wage and Hour Division, resulted in the prosecution and sentencing for labor trafficking. The defendants fraudulently obtained investor visas to bring Thai nationals into the United States. Once the victims arrived, the defendants confiscated their passports and documents, exploited and coerced the victims’ labor, and profited from this degrading crime.

Related News:

Partners

Partnership to Combat Human Rights Abuse and Corruption

Treasury has demonstrated its resolve to identify and hold accountable human rights abusers, facilitators of human trafficking, and corrupt actors who undermine peace, stability, and the rule of law. TFI hosted its inaugural Partnership to Combat Human Rights Abuse and Corruption event, bringing together over 100 NGOs, industry, and government partners to combat human rights abuse and corruption through enhanced information sharing and coordination on illicit finance and corruption networks. Treasury led a panel discussion on information sharing models with financial institutions and NGOs on combatting human trafficking.

“Treasury looks to NGOs to be our eyes on the ground both to track individual crimes and abuses and, more broadly, to understand when whole governments bear responsibility.” –Deputy Secretary Justin Muzinich

Intergovernmental Forums

Treasury engages on an international level through intergovernmental forums such as the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which sets global standards for AML/CFT, and the Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units (Egmont Group). Treasury participates in these forums to strengthen AML/CFT awareness and promote greater understanding of human trafficking, exchange information to identify and disrupt networks, and incorporate law enforcement and interagency partners into our efforts.

Treasury’s TFFC heads the United States’ delegations to the FATF and its nine regional bodies. TFFC collaborates with the FATF and its global network to raise awareness of this issue and encourage governments to adopt the good practices outlined in the FATF report on the Financial Flows Associated with Human Trafficking. These practices include enhancing public–private partnerships and mechanisms to utilize risk indicators aimed at identifying and targeting financial flows associated with human trafficking. Treasury also works through FATF’s global network to promote the inclusion of human trafficking when countries are conducting their national risk assessments for money laundering and terrorist financing.

To complement TFFC’s efforts at the FATF, FinCEN launched a human trafficking project with its global counterparts through the Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units to enhance bilateral information sharing and produce actionable information that can disrupt the financial movement related to human trafficking across borders. The Human Trafficking project team applied existing and new approaches, processes, and tools to strengthen the AML/CFT awareness and understanding of human trafficking, exchange information, and support interagency efforts.

President's Interagency Task Force

The President’s Interagency Task Force to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (PITF) is a cabinet-level entity created by the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA). PITF includes 19 departments and agencies across the federal government that are responsible for coordinating U.S. government-wide efforts to combat trafficking in persons. The PITF meets annually and is chaired by the Secretary of State.

Within the PITF framework, the Senior Policy Operating Group (SPOG), which consists of senior officials designated as representatives of the PITF agencies, is dedicated to a multi-faceted response from every level of the U.S. government to ensure coordination of federal efforts to combat trafficking in persons. TFFC leads Treasury’s participation at the SPOG and coordinates efforts to raise awareness and educate stakeholders to help address this crime.

For example, TFFC conducts outreach to the financial services industry to identify and address the threats presented by illicit finance associated with human trafficking to the international financial system.