[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2670 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
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119th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. 2670
To require the Secretary of the Treasury to designate certain covered
organizations as Foreign Financial Threat Organizations, and for other
purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
August 1, 2025
Mr. Scott of Florida introduced the following bill; which was read
twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban
Affairs
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To require the Secretary of the Treasury to designate certain covered
organizations as Foreign Financial Threat Organizations, and for other
purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Strengthening Targeting of Organized
Predatory Scammers Act'' or the ``STOP Scammers Act''.
SEC. 2. DESIGNATION OF FOREIGN FINANCIAL THREAT ORGANIZATIONS.
(a) Designation.--The Secretary of the Treasury shall designate
covered organizations as ``Foreign Financial Threat Organizations''.
The Secretary shall make the first of such designations not later than
90 days after the date of the enactment of this Act.
(b) Procedure.--
(1) Notice.--Before making a designation under this
section, the Secretary shall notify, in writing, the Speaker
and the Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, the
President pro tempore, the Majority Leader, and the Minority
Leader of the Senate, and the members of the relevant
committees of Congress of the intent to designate an
organization under this section as a Foreign Financial Threat
Organization and the factual basis for such designation.
(2) Publication in federal register.--The Secretary shall
publish a designation made under this section in the Federal
Register not later than 7 days after providing the notification
under paragraph (1).
(3) Freezing of assets.--Upon notification under paragraph
(1), the Secretary may require United States financial
institutions possessing or controlling any assets of a Foreign
Financial Threat Organization to block all financial
transactions involving those asset until further direction from
the Secretary of the Treasury, an Act of Congress, or an order
of a court.
(4) Effect of designation.--A Foreign Financial Threat
Organization shall be subject to the same penalties and
procedures as an organization that has been designated as a
specially designated global terrorist organization by the
Secretary of State or the Secretary of the Treasury, as the
case may be, pursuant to Executive Order 13224 (50 U.S.C. 1701
note; relating to blocking property and prohibiting
transactions with persons who commit, threaten to commit, or
support terrorism).
(c) Enforcement.--The Federal Government may take such actions as
necessary against a Foreign Financial Threat Organization to protect
the cybersecurity of the United States and limit the ability of the
Foreign Financial Threat Organization to access internet or cellular
services.
(d) Prohibition on Contact.--The Secretary of the Treasury shall
take such actions as may be necessary to prevent a Foreign Financial
Threat Organization from contacting United States citizens or aliens
who are lawful permanent residents of the United States by phone,
internet, or email.
(e) Report.--
(1) In general.--Not later than 2 years after the date of
the enactment of this Act, and annually thereafter, the
Secretary of the Treasury shall submit to the appropriate
congressional committees a report on the implementation of this
Act.
(2) Contents.--A report required by paragraph (1) shall
include, for the period covered by the report--
(A) an identification of covered organizations that
have been designated as Foreign Financial Threat
Organizations;
(B) the amount of assets seized from such Foreign
Financial Threat Organizations;
(C) the actions taken by the Secretary to identify
such Foreign Financial Threat Organizations; and
(D) the amount of funds the Secretary was able to
return to victims of fraud by such Foreign Financial
Threat Organizations.
(3) Public availability.--The Secretary shall make publicly
available a version of each report required by paragraph (1)
that does not include any sensitive information.
(4) Appropriate congressional committees defined.--In this
subsection, the term ``appropriate congressional committees''
means--
(A) the Committee on Foreign Relations and the
Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs of the
Senate; and
(B) the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the
Committee on Financial Services of the House of
Representatives.
(f) Covered Organization Defined.--In this Act, the term ``covered
organization'' means a foreign entity (as defined in section 800.220(a)
of title 31, Code of Federal Regulations), including any subsidiary or
affiliate of a foreign entity, that engages in fraudulent activity in
an attempt to deceive United States citizens or aliens who are lawful
permanent residents of the United States to provide cash or other
assets to such foreign entity, as jointly determined by the Secretary
of the Treasury and the Attorney General.
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