Fentanyl Policy Working Group Meeting

WASHINGTON, D.C.- Yesterday, the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party's Fentanyl Policy Working Group, led by Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-WA) and Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-MA), held its third meeting to discuss how the United States can counteract People's Republic of China (PRC) money laundering and illicit finance, which facilitates the flow of fentanyl and fentanyl precursors to the United States.
Members heard from experts including Mr. Don Im, Former Assistant Special Agent in Charge with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Special Operations Division, Mr. John Cassara, Former Central Intelligence Agency officer and Special Agent with the U.S. Department of the Treasury, and Mr. Alex Zerden, Founder, Capitol Peak Strategies.
Watch highlights from the meeting below.
Video & B-roll for public broadcast and distribution is available HERE
(Email sccpressteam@mail.house.gov for passcode to access media. All media is permissible to use in any format)

Rep. Dan Newhouse opens the working group meeting:
"Chinese money launderers have taken the terrorist money laundering playbook and digitized it. They use modern technologies—messaging and payment apps, e-commerce sites, digital assets, and the opaque nature of the Chinese banking system—to move large sums of money and facilitate trade-based money laundering with impunity.
This system largely evades the formal banking system in the United States, Mexico, and elsewhere, making it particularly difficult to counter with traditional anti-money laundering tools. But make no mistake, the CCP financing system runs right through Chinese banks—and the CCP knows all about it. Retired Admiral Craig Faller, the former head of U.S. Southern Command, has warned that the Chinese government is “at least tacitly supporting” money laundering. I’d go one step further: the illicit financing of the fentanyl trade is state-sponsored by the PRC."
Click HERE for Rep. Newhouse's opening remarks as prepared for delivery.

Mr. Don Im, Former Assistant Special Agent in Charge with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Special Operations Division describes the process of Chinese money laundering of drug profits:
“So now what happens to that million dollars held by the Chinese New York network? That person in their network will then structurally deposit that million dollars of cash throughout various bank accounts, restaurants, little shops, gas stations, laundry stores, and that one million dollars will then get pulled into one or two bank accounts...
This happens every day, every week, throughout major drug markets in North America and Europe, and you're seeing literally half a trillion to three-quarters of a trillion dollars worth of drug proceeds generated every year."

Mr. John Cassara, Former Central Intelligence Agency officer and Special Agent with the U.S. Department of the Treasury:
“In 12 most significant categories of transnational crime, I found criminal activity has become part of the CCP’s overall strategy to grow its power. By measuring the proceeds of crime generated, China leads the world in all criminal categories… CCP inks involving in the transnational crime is at least $2 trillion dollars and I think that's an understatement, or at least approximately half of the $4 trillion that is laundered annually around the world every year.”

Mr. Alex Zerden, Founder, Capitol Peak Strategies:
“As a national security professional I’m incredibly encouraged to see the bipartisan, bicameral efforts to illuminate China’s role in the fentanyl crisis. However we must collectively continue to move beyond admiring the problem… and really take concrete actions.”