The federal statute of limitations for money laundering is five years, running from the date the offense is complete under 18 U.S.C. § 3282.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 3282 – Offenses Not Capital That five-year rule is the starting point, not the whole story. Fugitive status pauses the clock entirely, foreign evidence requests can add up to three years, a separate seven-year deadline applies to laundering tied to certain foreign crimes, and companion charges often filed alongside laundering carry a 10-year window of their own. Forfeiture of laundered property runs on a different clock still.
The Five-Year Default
Both federal money laundering statutes, 18 U.S.C. § 1956 and § 1957, are governed by the general five-year limitations period for non-capital federal offenses.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 3282 – Offenses Not Capital Section 1956 reaches knowing financial transactions in illegal proceeds that are meant to promote crime, disguise the money’s source, or evade reporting rules. Section 1957 covers knowingly moving more than $10,000 of criminally derived funds through a financial institution, with no requirement that the defendant be hiding anything.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 1956 – Laundering of Monetary Instruments If prosecutors don’t indict within five years, the defendant can move to dismiss.
One catch. The statute of limitations is an affirmative defense, which means the defendant has to raise it. A court won’t throw out a late indictment on its own. If defense counsel doesn’t object, the argument is waived.
When the Clock Actually Starts
The five years runs from the date the laundering offense is complete, not from the underlying crime that generated the money. For a single transaction, that date is obvious. For a scheme involving many transfers, the clock doesn’t start until the last transaction in the scheme. Federal law treats a wire transfer as a single continuing transaction from origin to destination.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 1956 – Laundering of Monetary Instruments A dozen transfers spread over eight months are measured from the final one.
Conspiracy charges extend the exposure further. When laundering is charged as a conspiracy under 18 U.S.C. § 371, the clock doesn’t start for any participant until the last overt act by any member of the conspiracy.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 371 – Conspiracy to Commit Offense or to Defraud United States Someone who stopped laundering years ago can still be charged if a co-conspirator kept the scheme going. The only way to cut off the exposure is to affirmatively withdraw from the conspiracy, and courts set a high bar for proving that.
Prosecutors use these timing rules deliberately. By pointing to a late-stage transaction or a co-conspirator’s recent act, they can bring charges that look like they stretch well past five years from the core conduct. A defendant who assumes the deadline has passed is often wrong.
The Seven-Year Window for International Laundering
Section 1956(j) stretches the deadline to seven years when the underlying illegal activity falls within subsection (c)(7)(B) of the statute. That subsection lists specific foreign offenses, including bribery of foreign officials, export control violations, and certain foreign drug trafficking crimes.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 1956 – Laundering of Monetary Instruments The seven-year window applies to both Section 1956 and Section 1957 charges when the laundering is tied to those categories of foreign conduct.
Events That Pause the Clock
Several circumstances suspend the limitations period, giving the government more real time to charge.
Fugitive Status
Under 18 U.S.C. § 3290, no limitations period applies to anyone fleeing from justice.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 3290 – Fugitives From Justice Leave the country or go into hiding for a decade, and the clock resumes with the same time left on it as the day you left.
Foreign Evidence Requests
Money laundering cases often depend on bank records and witnesses abroad. When prosecutors file an official request for foreign evidence through a court order, 18 U.S.C. § 3292 suspends the statute of limitations for up to three years.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 3292 – Suspension of Limitations to Permit United States to Obtain Foreign Evidence Added to the five-year baseline, that gives the government up to eight years to indict. The court has to find that the evidence reasonably appears to be in a foreign country before granting the suspension.
Tolling Agreements
The clock can also be paused by agreement. During pre-indictment negotiations, prosecutors sometimes ask a target to sign a tolling agreement, which is a written contract suspending the limitations period for a set time. Targets agree more often than you might think, usually because their lawyers want more time to present evidence that might head off an indictment, or to avoid pushing the government into filing something broad right before the deadline. The tradeoff is giving the government extra time to build its case. Any such agreement should be narrow in scope and limited in duration.
Related Charges With a Ten-Year Deadline
Money laundering rarely comes alone. Prosecutors often pair it with bank fraud or with wire or mail fraud affecting a financial institution, and those offenses carry a 10-year statute of limitations under 18 U.S.C. § 3293.6Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 3293 – Financial Institution Offenses Sections 1956 and 1957 are not on that list, so the 10-year window does not apply to the laundering charge directly. But if the money was moved through a bank fraud scheme, prosecutors can still indict the fraud years after the laundering charge would have expired. Assuming you are in the clear on everything because the laundering deadline has passed is a mistake.
Forfeiture Runs on a Separate Clock
Even when the criminal deadline has expired, the government may still be able to seize property connected to the laundering through forfeiture.
Criminal forfeiture is tied to a conviction. When someone is convicted under Section 1956 or 1957, the court is required to order forfeiture of any property involved in the offense or traceable to it.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 982 – Criminal Forfeiture It is mandatory and runs with the sentence.
Civil forfeiture is the harder one to track, because it doesn’t require a conviction at all. Under 18 U.S.C. § 981, property involved in a transaction that violates Sections 1956, 1957, or 1960 is subject to forfeiture, along with any property traceable to it.8Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 981 – Civil Forfeiture The action is brought against the property, not the person. The deadline is generally five years from when the government discovered the offense, or two years from when the property’s involvement was discovered, whichever is later.9Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 19 U.S. Code 1621 – Limitation of Actions Because the trigger is discovery rather than the date of the offense, civil forfeiture can reach back further than a criminal charge.
State Deadlines Vary
Nearly every state has its own money laundering statute with its own limitations period, and they vary widely. Some match the five-year federal rule, some allow up to seven years for financial crimes, and a few set three- or four-year windows. The applicable deadline often depends on how the state grades the offense and whether it is charged as a standalone crime or part of a broader fraud scheme. States have their own tolling rules too, and many pause the clock when the defendant is outside the state.
Federal and state prosecutors can pursue the same conduct independently, and double jeopardy doesn’t bar it. A state case running on a different clock can outlive an expired federal deadline, or the reverse. The longest applicable deadline, federal or state, is the one that defines actual exposure.