In the

criminal law of the United States The criminal law of the United States is a manifold system of laws and practices that connects crimes and consequences. In comparison, civil law addresses non-criminal disputes. The system varies considerably by jurisdiction, but conforms to the ...

, a predicate crime or offense is a crime which is a component of a larger crime. The larger crime may be

racketeering Racketeering is a type of organized crime in which the perpetrators set up a coercion, coercive, fraud, fraudulent, extortionary, or otherwise illegal coordinated scheme or operation (a "racket") to repeatedly or consistently collect a profit. ...

money laundering Money laundering is the process of illegally concealing the origin of money obtained from illicit activities (often known as dirty money) such as drug trafficking, sex work, terrorism, corruption, and embezzlement, and converting the funds i ...

, financing of terrorism, etc. For example, to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act (RICO), a person must "engage in a pattern of racketeering activity", and in particular, must have committed at least two predicate crimes within 10 years. These include

bribery Bribery is the corrupt solicitation, payment, or Offer and acceptance, acceptance of a private favor (a bribe) in exchange for official action. The purpose of a bribe is to influence the actions of the recipient, a person in charge of an official ...

blackmail Blackmail is a criminal act of coercion using a threat. As a criminal offense, blackmail is defined in various ways in common law jurisdictions. In the United States, blackmail is generally defined as a crime of information, involving a thr ...

extortion Extortion is the practice of obtaining benefit (e.g., money or goods) through coercion. In most jurisdictions it is likely to constitute a criminal offence. Robbery is the simplest and most common form of extortion, although making unfounded ...

fraud In law, fraud is intent (law), intentional deception to deprive a victim of a legal right or to gain from a victim unlawfully or unfairly. Fraud can violate Civil law (common law), civil law (e.g., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrato ...

theft Theft (, cognate to ) is the act of taking another person's property or services without that person's permission or consent with the intent to deprive the rightful owner of it. The word ''theft'' is also used as a synonym or informal shor ...

counterfeiting A counterfeit is a fake or unauthorized replica of a genuine product, such as money, documents, designer items, or other valuable goods. Counterfeiting generally involves creating an imitation of a genuine item that closely resembles the original ...

, and illegal gambling. Crimes are predicate to a larger crime if they have a similar purpose to the larger crime. For example, using false identification is itself a crime; it may be a predicate offense to

larceny Larceny is a crime involving the unlawful taking or theft of the personal property of another person or business. It was an offence under the common law of England and became an offence in jurisdictions which incorporated the common law of Eng ...

if it is used to withdraw money from a bank account. Predicate crimes can be charged separately or together with the larger crime.

Money Laundering

Crimes that are specific to anti-money laundering (AML) programs have been referred to as Predicate Offenses (or Predicate Crimes) since the establishment of the FATF 40 Recommendations in October, 2004. Since 2004, the FATF have updated th
40 Recommendations
to expand the list of predicate offences. Financial intelligence units in the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

and

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

have created legislation to mirror or expand these offences. In the United States, these offences were initially created by the Bank Secrecy Act of 1970 and have subsequently been expanded by the USA PATRIOT Act of 2001. The predicate offences are codified in 18 USC § 1956(c)(7). With the passage of the 6th EU Money Laundering Directive, the European Union has now adopted as standard set of Predicate Offences to mitigate loopholes in member state AML legislation. {, class="wikitable" , + !Offense !EU 6MLD !FinCEN !FATF 2018 !FATF 2004 , - , Arms Trafficking , ✓ , ✓ , ✓ , ✓ , - , Arson , , ✓ , , , - , Concealment of Assets , , ✓ , , , - , Corruption & Bribery , ✓ , ✓ , ✓ , ✓ , - , Counterfeiting Currency , ✓ , ✓ , ✓ , ✓ , - , Counterfeiting Products , ✓ , ✓ , ✓ , ✓ , - , Cybercrime , ✓ , , , , - , Drug Trafficking , ✓ , ✓ , ✓ , ✓ , - , Environmental Crime , ✓ , ✓ , ✓ , ✓ , - , Extortion , ✓ , ✓ , ✓ , ✓ , - , Forgery , ✓ , , ✓ , ✓ , - , Fraud , ✓ , ✓ , ✓ , ✓ , - , Human Trafficking / Migrant Smuggling , ✓ , ✓ , ✓ , ✓ , - , Insider Trading & Market Manipulation , ✓ , , ✓ , ✓ , - , Kidnapping, Illegal Restraint, and Hostage-taking , ✓ , ✓ , ✓ , ✓ , - , Organized Crime / Racketeering , ✓ , ✓ , ✓ , ✓ , - , Piracy , ✓ , ✓ , ✓ , ✓ , - , Robbery or Theft , ✓ , ✓ , ✓ , ✓ , - , Sexual Exploitation , ✓ , ✓ , ✓ , ✓ , - , Smuggling , ✓ , ✓ , ✓ , ✓ , - , Tax Crimes , ✓ , , ✓ , , - , Terrorism / Terrorist Financing , ✓ , ✓ , ✓ , ✓ , - , Trafficking in Stolen Goods , ✓ , ✓ , ✓ , ✓ , - , Violent Crime (Murder & Grievous Bodily Injury) , ✓ , ✓ , ✓ , ✓

Etymology

"Predicate" as an adjective originally means "something said of a subject", originally from Latin ''praedicare'' 'to proclaim or make known'. In

logic Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the study of deductively valid inferences or logical truths. It examines how conclusions follow from premises based on the structure o ...

, it came to mean to assert something. In U.S. legal usage, it is a "basis or foundation on which something rests".''

Oxford English Dictionary The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the principal historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP), a University of Oxford publishing house. The dictionary, which published its first editio ...

'', Third Edition, March 2007
''s.v.''
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References

Crimes