Claim And The Tools Use By Journalism In The Creation Of Crime

BANK OF BOSTON
Name:
Institution:
Course Code:
Date:
How “Bank of Boston case” created a new “money laundering” crime category.
According to the law, the only banking violation that bank of Boston had done was currency-reporting Violations. The print media blew the severity of the case out of proportion to serve some organization’s objectives, including expansion of government power and the sale of news products. Nichols details other severe cases in which other bks had committed but they did not generate similar media euphoria or lead to creation of new anti-laundering legislations. The Boston case was a confluent of objectives sought by law enforcement agencies and mass media since it showed up at an opportune moment for law enforcement and provided news outlets with a rich embodiment of newsworthy content characterized by currency reporting violations, organized crime, drugs and alleged involvement of corporate coverup. These factors cumulatively worked to the advantage of the media outlets and law enforcement agencies who were tying to send a symbolic message to the banking institution especially about their involvement with unlawful clients such as drug traffickers. Thus, the public lynching of the Boston bank case was aimed to meet the objectives of governmental agencies and media outlets. The aftermath of the case led to the passing of the money laundering control act of 1986. Nichols concisely claims that the Boston case of a victim of interests sought by other entities; the law enforcements and the news media and they used it to make achieve their own objectives. As he points out, the case was less significant that of Crocker National Bank of San Francisco was accused of failing to report $3.9 billion in cash transactions for which it was fined 2.25 million and that of $4.75 million civil penalty on the Bank of America f...