Supreme Court To Mull Money Laundering

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court agreed yesterday to decide whether merely hiding money that is headed out of the country can constitute money laundering.

The case involves the conviction of a man arrested in Texas while traveling toward Mexico with $83,000 in cash hidden beneath the floor of his car. Police suspected the money came from drug trafficking.

Humberto Fidel Regalado Cuellar was sentenced to 78 months in prison for international money laundering. Money laundering typically involves an effort to make it appear that money from an illegal transaction, often drug sales, is legitimate. Several federal appeals courts have said concealing money that is going across the American border, without proving why, also is a crime under the federal law concerning international money laundering.

Defense lawyers who urged the court to hear Cuellar's case said the concealment provision — with its maximum prison term of 20 years and fine of $500,000 — has proved useful to prosecutors in forcing guilty pleas.