Boat dealers may have follow more rigorous Patriot Act rules.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)

Byline: Dale K. Dupont

Boat dealers can get into trouble for not checking the government's terrorist list. Doing business with a bad guy could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines.

But scanning a list may not be all dealers and brokers are required to do to help the government fight terrorists and money launderers.

The specter of the Patriot Act is hanging over them, Gregory Baldwin, an attorney with Holland & Knight in Miami, told 250 members of the Florida Yacht Brokers Association in Fort Lauderdale on Wednesday.

Since 1988, vehicle sellers _ car, plane and boat dealers _ have been classified as financial institutions. But up until the Patriot Act, the U.S. Treasury Department had restricted the application of the law largely to banks and casinos.

Under the Patriot Act passed right after Sept. 11, vehicle sellers are temporarily exempted, "but the exemption may be about to end," Baldwin said.

The Treasury Department is considering including them. If it does, they'll have to comply with more extensive anti-money-laundering requirements, such as reporting suspicious activity and verifying a customer's identity.