The fifth edition of the United States Sentencing Commission’s Sourcebook of Federal Sentencing Statistics is available on the organisation’s web site. The Sourcebook contains descriptive statistics on the application of the federal sentencing guidelines and provides selected district, circuit, and national sentencing data. The volume covers fiscal year 2000.

An analysis by *Complinet* reports that the number of people sentenced annually for money laundering in the US has risen from 853 in 1996 to 1,106 in 2000. In addition, the maximum prison sentence handed down to launderers rose from 327 months (27 years) to 990 months (82 years) over the same period. The average length of imprisonment for launderers rose from 36 months in 1996 to 38 months in 2000.

The district of Southern Florida sentenced 103 launderers in 2000, the highest number in the United States. Eastern New York had the second highest number of criminals sentenced for money laundering in 2000, at 79. Southern Texas with 62, Western Texas with 60, and Central California with 56 convictions sentenced the third, fourth and fifth highest number of launderers in the US. The districts with no convictions in 2000 were the Northern Mariana Islands, New Mexico, Utah and Western Wisconsin.

The United States Treasury released its National Money Laundering Strategy 2002 last month, at which time it reported on its fight against money laundering. The total amount of assets seized relating to money laundering during 2001 was $386m and the total amount of forfeitures relating to dirty money was $241m. Over the past eight years, the US reportedly has shared a total of $22,401,318 in recovered assets with some 18 cooperating jurisdictions.

The United States Sentencing Commission has presented amendments to its Sentencing Guidelines to the US Congress. Unless these are modified or rejected by Congress, they are expected to become effective November 1, 2002.