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Boom time for money laundering conventionBy JEFF HARRINGTON, Times Staff Writer© St. Petersburg Times published March 3, 2003 In an era when hotels are starved for conventions and globetrotting execs are reluctant to travel, at least one annual conference in Florida keeps growing into an international event. Maybe it's the hot topic: money laundering. Charles Intriago, a former federal prosecutor who publishes the Money Laundering Alert newsletter, is expecting about 1,000 people from 60 countries to attend his eighth annual conference in Miami Beach this month. That's up from 800 attendees from 55 countries last year and 600 attendees from 42 countries in 2001. Just four years ago, Intriago wasn't even pulling in 200 people. He credits the explosion of interest to "world-class speakers," "beautiful surroundings" and, of course, a timely program. Among the speakers are a federal prosecutor who successfully went after a U.S. group funneling money to Hezbollah terrorists, and an FBI special agent on the Joint Terrorist Task Force in Washington. Top regulators past and present also are converging to talk about how the terrorist-inspired Patriot Act has changed the money laundering rules. All the attention is a bit of vindication for Intriago, who was scoffed at not long ago for devoting a newsletter and business to an arcane topic like money laundering. "Everyone thought I was crazy then," he said.
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From the Times Business report
From the AP
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