Money laundering is a curious crime. Many people don't understand what it entails or why New Jersey, other states, and the federal government make it a crime. Any crime, though, can spoil a clean record. Money laundering is in no sense as serious as murder or other crimes of violence. But no one wants money laundering on their criminal history. If you can expunge money laundering from your criminal history, then you have every reason to do so. Federal immigration law, for instance, holds that money laundering can be a crime of moral turpitude disqualifying an immigrant from naturalization. Landlords, employers, schools, lenders, and licensing boards could also regard a criminal history of money laundering as a disqualifying background for housing, jobs, education, loans, and licenses.
Expungement Seals a Criminal Record
If you have a money laundering crime in your background, then you should consider expungement. Expungement seals a criminal record from public view. New Jersey is among the many states that have listened to criminal justice reform advocates to relieve individuals of the burden of a criminal history. Indeed, New Jersey's Senate Bill 4154 recently enacted a slate of reforms to its expungement laws, expanding the availability of expungement. Among other things, those reforms removed certain marijuana convictions from the list of disqualifying crimes, allowed some defendants with multiple related convictions to expunge all convictions, and decreased the time to wait for expungement from six years to five years. Expungement of your money laundering conviction may be your fresh start. Retain New Jersey criminal defense attorney Joseph D. Lento to review your criminal history and to help you determine whether you qualify for expungement.
Expungement Clears a Background Check
Keep in mind that expungement won't destroy records of your money laundering conviction. Instead, expungement means that the court will extract, seal, impound, and isolate your conviction records, as New Jersey Stat. §2C:52-1(a) provides. Extracting and sealing your record means that when an interested person goes online or hires a private service to do a criminal history check on your application for some privilege or benefit, they'll find a record clear of the expunged conviction or convictions. And it's not just background checks that get cleared. You can also truthfully answer “no” to whether you have a history of criminal conviction. That ability to represent a clean record can get you in the door for education, jobs, loans, and other important benefits. Clear your record of money laundering if you can. It's worth it.
Expungement Also Clears Arrest Records
Your money laundering conviction surely created more than just a single court judgment of conviction. Your money laundering charge and conviction almost surely entailed warrants, arrest records, jail processing records including mugshots and fingerprints, criminal complaints, judicial docket entries, and perhaps even corrections records. Fortunately, New Jersey Stat. §2C:52-1(a) expunge “all records on file within any court, detention or correctional facility, law enforcement or criminal justice agency,” not just a judgment of conviction. New Jersey Stat. §2C:52-1(a) also seals all records of “detection, apprehension, arrest, detention, trial or disposition of an offense within the criminal justice system,” not just criminal complaints and other court records. New Jersey Stat. §2C:52-1(b) doubles down on the protections by sealing “complaints, warrants, arrests, commitments, processing records, fingerprints, photographs, index cards, ‘rap sheets,' and judicial docket records.” The public won't likely discover your money laundering charge from any such record once you obtain its expungement.
Expungement Doesn't Apply Everywhere
Expungement will probably do everything you need it to do unless you seek a certain special position or benefit. For example, if you apply to work in the courts, law enforcement, or corrections, or seek a diversion program for another criminal charge, then New Jersey Stat. 2C:52-27 compels disclosure of the expunged record. If you face another criminal charge, the police, prosecution, and court will likely learn of your expunged prior conviction. Expungement doesn't protect you from increased charges for a second or subsequent offense, increased bail, or a more-severe sentence due to the expunged prior conviction. Expungement generally works well in the outside world, not so much in the court system.
New Jersey Money Laundering
Money laundering is a highly technical crime. Money laundering typically involves financial dealings to benefit from the fruit of crime while avoiding crime detection. New Jersey's money laundering statute N.J.Stat. §2C:21-25 defines the crime as either (a) transporting or possessing property a reasonable person would know another had derived from crime, (b) engaging in a transaction as to that property intending to facilitate or promote the crime, or knowing the transaction was to hide the crime or avoid required financial reporting, or (c) controlling transactions in or transportation of property a reasonable person would know another derived from crime. Money laundering is a serious New Jersey crime. Its sentence depends on the value of the involved property. New Jersey Stat. §2C:21-27 makes money laundering a first-degree offense punishable by ten to twenty years imprisonment if the property had at least a $500,000 value. Money laundering involving property having a value of at least $75,000 but less than $500,000 is a second-degree offense punishable by five to ten years imprisonment. Money laundering involving property worth less than $75,000 is a third-degree offense punishable by up to five years imprisonment. Money laundering is certainly serious enough to seek expungement.
Expunging Money Laundering Criminal History
The expungement statute New Jersey Stat. §2C:52-2 doesn't generally list the crimes that a defendant may expunge. It instead lists crimes that a defendant may not expunge. Those crimes include murder, manslaughter, rape, and robbery. You can imagine why the New Jersey legislature would not approve their expungement. But fortunately for those who have a money laundering conviction, money laundering is not on the list in New Jersey Stat. §2C:52-2 of crimes that a defendant may not expunge. Going in, money laundering is a crime that can qualify for expungement.
When Money Laundering Might Not Qualify for Expungement
Every expungement case is different. The expungement laws have so many conditions and exceptions, and each defendant with a criminal history has such different circumstances that one must determine expungement on a case-by-case basis. New Jersey Stat. §2C:52-2 makes expungement generally available only for a single conviction or multiple related convictions. The defendant must also not suffer another conviction while waiting the statutory five-year period for expungement. A prior expungement and other events and circumstances can also disqualify a defendant from expungement. Do not assume on your own, even with reliable general information, that you can or cannot qualify for expungement. Instead, retain a skilled and experienced New Jersey criminal defense attorney to determine whether you individually qualify to expunge your money laundering conviction.
New Jersey Attorney for Money Laundering Expungement
New Jersey criminal defense attorney Joseph D. Lento and the Lento Law Firm has the substantial skill and experience with expungements that you need to determine reliably whether you can expunge your money laundering conviction. Attorney Lento has helped hundreds of clients expunge many different convictions under all different circumstances. Trust Attorney Lento to aggressively and effectively represent you on your expungement request. You have every good reason to pursue expungement. You just need a qualified, skilled, committed, and experienced New Jersey criminal defense attorney to help you. Contact the Lento Law Firm at 888.535.3686 or online to speak with attorney Joseph D. Lento.
