But these days if you engage in almost any financial transaction with the proceeds of mail fraud, wire fraud, bank fraud, health care fraud or environmental crimes, you could be charged with money-laundering, which carries a maximum 20-year sentence.
The Lanes, therefore, may not have irrevocably received the proceeds of the fraud prior to the final mailing.
His lawyer said he had been placed under formal investigation for allegedly laundering the proceeds of tax fraud.
But Cahuzac, if he goes to court, faces up to five years in prison for laundering the proceeds of tax fraud.
As part of that, they agreed to forfeit more than $4.6 million in cash and luxury cars that were bought with proceeds of the fraud, the prosecutors said.
Cahuzac, who until last month headed the Socialists' crackdown on tax evasion, has been charged with laundering the proceeds of tax fraud.
This is worth doing for its own sake and may, incidentally, also help to catch terrorists—some recent attacks have been paid for with the proceeds of such fraud.
The filing adds: "Members of the organization, and associates of those members, have also engaged in a broad pattern of money laundering in order to conceal the proceeds of the fraud scheme.
Cahuzac, who has now been charged with laundering the proceeds of tax fraud, announced in the interview with BFMTV and RMC radio that he would step down from his parliamentary seat.
The jury was shown a photograph of the couple taken at an estate agent's office in Panama in 2006, when they were looking for property to buy with the proceeds of the fraud.
