Money Laundering And The Proceeds Of Crime

The pursuit of the financial proceeds of criminal activity has become a central theme of contemporary crime control. Initially conceived to tackle the global trade in illegal drugs, these methods have been more recently employed in the context of terrorism. This work offers a judicious account of the national and international strategies which seek to cope with crime by attacking its financial underpinnings. The book focuses on the increasingly civil legal orientation of these strategies - a sea change from criminal prosecutions to civil legal instruments. The author focuses on developments of the civil strategy in the US and the UK beginning with its historical origins. The work reveals the contradictions that animate the civil approach to criminal finance and discloses the failure of civil devices, as presently constituted, to comply with rights. It bridges the gap between two jurisdictions prominent in this area; the United States and the United Kingdom. This comparative element distinguishes the project from other work in the field that focuses on a single jurisdiction. Critical in its perspective, the work brings balance and reflection to an emergent area of national and international interest.

A concise and practical guide to domestic laws dealing with proceeds of crime and money laundering including recent amendments to the Criminal Code and new anti-terrorism legislation.

The role played by legal professionals in the laundering of criminal proceeds generated by others has become a priority concern for authorities at national and international levels. This ground-breaking book presents an in-depth empirical analysis of the nature of lawyers’ involvement in the facilitation of money laundering and its control through criminal justice and regulatory mechanisms. It is based on qualitative research combining analysis of cases of lawyers convicted of money laundering offences with interviews with criminal justice practitioners, members of professional and regulatory bodies and practising solicitors, and analysis of relevant national and international legislative and regulatory frameworks. The book demonstrates the complex and diverse nature of lawyers’ involvement in laundering activity, and shows that their actions and the decisions they take must be understood in relation to the specific situational contexts in which they occur. It provides significant new insights into the criminal justice and regulatory response to professional facilitation of money laundering in the UK, raising questions about the effectiveness and appropriateness of the response and the challenges involved. The book develops a framework for future research and analysis in this area, and proposes a range of potential strategies for controlling the facilitation of money laundering. Lawyers and the Proceeds of Crime is essential reading for those researching money laundering, white-collar crime or organised crime, and for practitioners and policy makers concerned with preventing the facilitation of money laundering.

The leading text on money laundering law in the UK and EU.

Worldwide, anti-money laundering regulations and legislation have become one of the weapons of choice of governments that are fighting global terrorism and criminality. In this updated edition of Money Laundering, Doug Hopton explains how The Money Laundering Regulations 2007 have extended even further the range of UK businesses covered by the Proceeds of Crime Act to include solicitors, lawyers, accountants, estate agents, high value dealers, trust or company service providers and, in effect, many other companies involved in consultancy or business services. The complexity of the new laws and the limited amount of any case law asks more questions about the responsibilities of these companies and their liabilities. Doug Hopton's highly practical guide explains the basis of international law, regulations and standards in this area and how they affect businesses; and provides down-to-earth advice on the basic rules of good business management: customer due diligence, know your business (and your client's business), which will help companies understand what procedures to establish, and how and when to report suspicious activity. The author explains the basis of money laundering and how it works, along with the development of the law and regulations around the world, and how other countries' laws can affect UK companies.

Responding to Money Laundering has its origin in the International Conference on Preventing and Controlling Money Laundering and the Use of Proceeds of Crime: A Global Approach organised by ISPAC, the International Scientific and Advisory Board of the United Nations in co-operation with the Crime and Justice Branch of the United Nations under the auspices of the Italian Government. This conference has been a milestone in the recent international debate on money laundering. Some of the main papers presented are substantially revised and collected in this book making a major contribution to the development of expertise in the field. Divided into two sections -- "Trends and Implications" and "Tuning the Instruments" -- the chapters develop an analysis of the different aspects of the money laundering problem and attempt to tune the instruments for combating them. Globalization of the problem calls for globalization of the responses. By presenting a wide range of different approaches and

"Money laundering is a problem of some magnitude internationally and has long term negative economic impacts. Brigitte Unger argues that today, money laundering is largely linked to fraud and that it is not only small islands and tax heavens that launder, but increasingly industrialized countries like the US, Australia the Netherlands and the UK. Well-established financial markets and growing economies with sound political and social structures attract launderers in the same way as they attract honest capital. The book gives an interdisciplinary overview of the state-of-the-art of money laundering as well as describing the legal problems of defining and fighting money laundering. It then goes on to present a number of economic models designed to measure money laundering and applies these to measuring the size of laundering in the Netherlands and Australia. The book also gives an overview of techniques and potential effects of money laundering identified and measured so far in the literature. It adds to this debate by calculating the effects of laundering on crime and economic growth. This book will be of great interest to lawyers, financial experts, economists, political scientists, as well as to government ministries, international and national organizations and central banks."--Jacket.

Money laundering is the process of converting or transferring cash or other assets, generated from illegal activity, in order to conceal or disguise their origins. In recent years, the international community has decided that focusing on money laundering is an efficient strategy in policing organized crime and, now terrorism. To this end, countries are encouraged to harmonize their policies and legislation and, to some extent, their policing strategies. Before adopting these new strategies, however, it is important to understand the extent of money laundering in different jurisdictions, as well as the likelihood of success and the costs involved in these anti-laundering strategies. This new work by Margaret E. Beare and Stephen Schneider brings empirical evidence to the study of money laundering in Canada - a topic that has recently assumed an international profile. They challenge the seemingly common sense notion, fueled by political posturing and policing rhetoric, that taking the profits away from criminals is a rational law enforcment strategy. Using data from police cases, the inner working of financial institutions, and the 'successful' claims of privilege from our legal profession, the final picture that the authors paint is of a good enforcement strategy run amuch amid conflicting interests and agendas, an overly ambitious set of expectations, and an ambiguous body of evidence as to the strategy's overall merits.