Speech #980243517

I believe that Vietnamese people in the United States need to have some means of transfering a reasonable level of funds for humanitarian purposes to family members in Vietnam. without enriching a regime they hate and under circumstances which protect them against becoming insidiously involved in shadowy underground practices designed solely to bolster the Socialist Republic of Vietnams insatiable need for a substantial hard currency reserve. We also need to guard against the building of a presumably Communistinfluenced clandestine currency transfer network which is unregulated. invites exploitation by criminal elements. and which presents our law enforcement agencies with a complicated web of deception and intrigue. We cannot permit the Socialist Republic of Vietnam to reach out the long arm of coercion and. taking advantage of our humanitarian policies. pick the pockets of lawabiding refugees who have flocked to our shores for those freedoms our democracy guarantees. We cannot permit millions of dollars to leave this country on an annual basis to uncertain destinations somewhere in Southeast Asia. money which is likely to be used to finance the military adventurism of a bellicose regime. Evidence indicates that day after day. in cities all across this country where there are significant concentrations of Southeast Asian people. Vietnamese refugees take their money to storefronts and back rooms. entrusting their familys welfare to unlicensed. unregulated. unwatched currency transfer operators who not only skim A ugus t 7. 1984 off a substantial percentage of the funds but may also be acting in the interests of a hostile foreign power. Not far from this Chamber. a small group of dedicated local and Federal law enforcement officers are presently working on one of the few cases of this nature ever to come to prosecution. Evidence taken clearly indicates that just one such minor operation can account for as much as a quarter million dollars per year. In U.S. cities with significantly larger Southeast Asian populations there are cases under investigation that may involve collection of as much as a quarter million dollars per month from Vietnamese refugees. Law enforcement officers tell me that investigations into such matters are being forestalled through lack of appropriate legislation and a clearcut assignment of enforcement responsibility. For example. it can be argued that this problem should be the responsibility of the Office of Foreign Assets Control.