NCJ Number
118877
Date Published
1988
Length
100 pages
Annotation
This report presents the findings and recommendations of the New Jersey Commission of Investigation regarding the unscrupulous use of the non-bank check cashing industry in New Jersey by organized crime and other parties with criminal intent.
Abstract
The investigation, which included 3 days of public hearings, confirmed that the New Jersey non-bank check cashing industry has been infiltrated, perverted, and abused for the benefit of various persons, groups, and entities involved in organized criminal activity or racketeering. This finding derives from both the commission's independent investigation and from the public hearings. At the public hearings, State banking officials testified on the regulatory problems pertinent to non-bank check cashing. Victims of unscrupulous check cashers also testified on excessive and unlawful fees, embezzlement, and bankruptcies. Testimony was also provided by certain check cashers whose enterprises have been infiltrated by organized crime figures to launder "dirty" money, finance loansharking, and evade income taxation. Thirteen recommendations are designed to protect the traditional, non-banking clientele of the check cashing industry, to improve the regulatory power of the State, and to criminalize certain activities so as to enhance law enforcement efforts against organized crime's incursion into the industry.