Why combat money laundering?
Criminals accumulate significant sums of money by committing crimes such as drug trafficking, human trafficking, theft, investment fraud, extortion, corruption, embezzlement and tax fraud. Money laundering is a serious threat to the legal economy and affects the integrity of financial institutions. It also changes the economic power in certain sectors. If left unchecked, it will corrupt society as a whole. Fighting money laundering serves several purposes.
The social importance
Crime causes tangible and intangible damage to third parties, individuals and society as a whole. Money laundering can result in reducing the public’s confidence in certain professions such as lawyers, accountants and notaries and economic sectors such as real estate, hospitality and banks and other financial institutions. Investing the proceeds of crime may also distort competition between businesses and entrepreneurs. Money laundering allows the criminal to start, continue and expand activities in legitimate sectors of the economy. It may create a perception that crime pays and may also have a stimulating effect on our youth starting a criminal career.
To identify tax crimes
Unusual transactions can be an indication of tax crimes in the past and can lead to the identification of those involved.
To identify other crimes and criminals
Taxing the income of criminals according to tax rules alone will not lead to the identification of potential money laundering. It will not stop crime from happening or from being profitable. The detection of unusual transactions may assist in identifying criminals and their illegal activities. Sharing information with law enforcement authorities can lead to the start of a criminal investigation.
To locate and confiscate criminal assets
Identifying unusual transactions can provide insight into the flow of money and the destination of laundered criminal proceeds into assets such as real estate, vehicles, yachts and bank accounts. This will assist law enforcement authorities in seizing those assets during a criminal investigation.
Legal context
In the vast majority of countries there is a legal framework for combating money laundering and it is a separate criminal offence in the penal code. The penal code states which activities in relation to proceeds of crime are forbidden and lists the relevant crimes covered, known as predicate offences to money laundering. Predicate offences can be defined as “all offences” named in the penal code or can be limited to “serious crime offences” or a threshold related to the penalty of imprisonment or a combination of these approaches.
The legislation may include tax crimes as a predicate offence to money laundering. It is also possible that tax crimes are not mentioned as a predicate offence. This means that transactions with money solely derived from a tax crime (e.g. non reported sales) might not be considered as money laundering offences. This does not mean that the tax administrations in those countries have no role in combating money laundering. Money derived from crimes mentioned as a predicate offence could
