Senators worried by border uses of prepaid cards

In a letter to the Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Treasury, three senators of the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control urged a crackdown on prepaid cards transported across the U.S.-Mexico border.

The letter, dated March 16, 2011, and penned by Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa, and Sheldon Whitehouse, D- R.I., recommended that Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner immediately institute rules that subject prepaid cards to cross-border reporting requirements. "Without this rule in place, our laws will continue to lag behind drug trafficking organizations as they develop new ways to transport illegal proceeds from the United States to Mexico," the letter said.

According to the senators, it is legal for criminals, such as drug traffickers and terrorists, to transport hundreds of thousands of dollars on prepaid cards across the United States' southern border. The senators expressed disappointment that, despite a push to update Bank Secrecy Act rules to include prepaid cards in anti-money laundering regulations, that the Treasury Department will not be finalizing any such rules in the near future.

To read the letter, go to .

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