Many of these financial crimes are meta crimes that exist because we've enacted this tangled web of law that cannot be enforced. There are many other examples.

A great example is the State Senator Joe Bruno case in NY. The Senator was the majority leader of the Senste for many years, an institution that is synonymous with corruption. (At least a dozen members are currently either under indictment or named as the subject of an investigation by the US Attorney.)

The Federal case was essentially that Bruno took bribes, except they couldn't prove it. So they prosecuted him for violation of what i call a meta-law... the so-called "honest services" laws, key parts of which were deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. So now they are going after him again for bribery -- a case that is probably double jeopardy and is subject to all sorts of appeals, essentially for the purpose of bankrupting the guy.

Acts that potentially support a crime should not be criminal acts. Go convict the money launderer of tax evasion, racketeering or drug sales. Go convict a criminal without the resources for an attorney for whatever they did, not for lying to an agent of the US.