When the FBI Comes Calling…®

When the FBI Comes Calling…^®

You may be charged with:

Trading With the Enemy (50 U.S.C.A. App. § 1-44)
First passed in 1917, six months after the United States entered World War I, the Trading With the Enemy Act (TWEA) addressed the President's aggregate economic powers in times of war, which in 1933 was expanded to deal with peacetime national emergences as well. Collectively the act grants the President four economic powers dealing with national emergencies: (a) regulation of transnational commerce, (b) regulation over any property in which a foreign power has an interest, (c) authority to "vest" foreign property in any person or entity, and (d) power to control any "vested" property to serve interests of the United States.

In 1977 Congress passed the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), which elaborated upon the specifics of the President's authority. Included in this elaboration was a provision which permitted the President to act only in times of "unusual and extraordinary threat... to the national security, foreign policy, or economy of the United States," and required the President to first declare a national emergency under the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C.A. § 1601-51).

Section 3 of TWEA prohibits any individual, except with Presidential authorization or license, from:

(a) Trading, or attempting to trade, with any individual, government, or entity in a nation with which the United States is at war, other than with American citizens living in, or associated with that nation.
(b) Trading, or attempting to trade, with any individual, government, or entity deemed to be a material ally of any government, person, or entity in a nation with which the United States is at war.

Potential Punishment:
One may be convicted for a felony, fined, and imprisoned for up to 10 years.