Money Laundering Counter Measures In The European Union

The past fifteen years witnessed the emergence globally of a plethora of legislative measures aimed at countering money laundering. These developments have been inextricably linked with the growing international focus on newly perceived and/or prioritised global security threats such as organised crime and terrorism ' with money laundering counter-measures deemed essential to counter these threats. Taking these developments into account, this book examines in detail the evolution and content of money laundering counter-measures in the European Union. These measures constitute a new paradigm of security governance, achieved through three principal methods: criminalisation, consisting in the emergence of new criminal offences; responsibilisation, consisting in the mobilisation of the private sector to co-operate with the authorities in the fight against money laundering; and the emphasis on the administration of knowledge, through the establishment of new institutions, the financial intelligence units, with extensive powers to administer a wide range of information provided by the private sector. This paradigm may pose significant challenges to fundamental legal principles and to well-established social structures and the book attempts to address this balance. This up-to-date analysis includes the provisions of the new EU money laundering Directive which was formally adopted in December 2001.

This is the third edition of this publication which explores key issues in the fast evolving field of money laundering and terrorist financing, and which has been restructured so as to fully reflect the high international priority given to tackling the financing of terrorism since September 2001. It takes into account recent developments such as the revised recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF), as agreed in June 2003; pan-European responses and the 2001 EU Directive; and recent initiatives taken by the United Nations, FATF, the Organization of American States and other organisations. The publication is designed for a wide audience, including government officials and regulators, officials in banks and non-banking financial institutions, professions such as lawyers and accountants, academics and students.

This work describes the situation of global money laundering, including new methods, which make full use of the new technologies and how the world community is combatting this problem

This book introduces and contextualizes the revised and strengthened legislation on the laundering of criminal funds mandated by the European Union on the 20th May 2015. The authors provide fresh and new insight into the EU’s fourth directive 2015/849, with a specific focus on topics such as: beneficial ownership and effective transparency, the risk-based approach, the issue of supervision of payment institutions that operate across borders by agents, the new method of risk assessment, tax crimes inclusion in “criminal activity” definition, and the effects of new rules on the gambling sector. The authors present the new laws in the context of their legal genealogy and demonstrate the benefits they bring in raising the standards for anti-money laundering regulation and counter-terrorism financing. The book’s comprehensive exploration of this new legislation will appeal to policy-makers, students and academics hoping to understand the changes more clearly.

This study analyses the modern EU counter-terrorism trends, focusing on the new terrorist crimes of Directive (EU) 2017/541 and on preventive counter-terrorism measures aiming to deter terrorist financing. It concludes by noting a ‘paradigm shift’ between repression and prevention in the field of countering terrorism, while suggesting relevant proposals.

EU Counter-Terrorism Law: Pre-emption and the Rule of Law is a detailed study of EU action to combat terrorism since 11 September 2001 and the implications that action has had for the EU legal order. It critically examines EU counter-terrorism measures to ascertain how rule of law principles have been affected in the 'war on terror'. The book opens with a critical examination of the rule of law in the EU legal order. It then provides an overview of the “war on terror” before analysing five key facets of EU counter-terrorism: the common European definition of terrorism along with related offences contained in the Framework Decision on Combating Terrorism; the EU's anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist finance laws; UN and EU targeted asset-freezing sanctions; EU data retention measures such as the Data Retention Directive and the Passenger Name Records agreements; and the European Arrest Warrant and European Evidence Warrant. The book argues that EU counter-terrorism is weakening the rule of law and bypassing safeguards in favour of a system emphasising coercive control over individual autonomy. It concludes by examining the prospects for the future as the EU becomes a more powerful security actor following the Lisbon Treaty and the adoption of the Stockholm Programme. 'an impressively accurate and alarming analysis' Ms Sophia In 't Veld MEP and Vice-Chair of the European Parliament Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs 2ND Prize winner of the Society of Legal Scholars Peter Birks Prize for Outstanding Legal Scholarship 2013

This monograph offers a comprehensive analysis of the implementation of global anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CTF) regulations in the United States and the European Union. It provides academics, legal professionals and interested readers with a deep understanding of the developments of the AML/CTF legal framework and guides them into the dimension of its most difficult relation with international and European human rights law. The implementation of global anti-money laundering regulations in the United Stated and the European Union has essentially led to the suspension of laws governing privacy and bank secrecy. Banks and other financial institutions now operate as an extension of law enforcement. The current Anti-Money Laundering regime jeopardises the fundamental achievements of the constitutional state. The increasing centralisation and cooperation of the competent authorities in the exchange of personal data information creates a security architecture that leads to a considerable risk of freedom restriction. In particular, the extension of the authorities ́ power of intervention granting them access to citizens ́ personal data without the need for initial suspicion underlines that a substantial part of the constitutional state is at risk. Furthermore, banks appear to use these policies as an instrument to clear legitimate but less profitable customers, in particular those with a migration background. Consequently, the implementation of the AML/CTF legal framework appears to follow a discriminatory path and clearly discloses incompatibility features with respect to the European Convention on Human Rights and Article 21 of the Charter of Fundamental Human Rights of the European Union. This monograph further explores factors contributing to the inefficiency of AML/CTF regulatory and legislative measures. Such factors are identified in inconsistent rules, which make the cooperation among national investigative authorities within the EU and at an international level more challenging. As a result, this work acknowledges regulatory and legislative harmonisation with respect to AML/CTF regimes as a central tool to successfully improve the effectiveness of AML/CTF regimes, while preserving the individual right to privacy, due process and civil rights.

This book deals with the widespread economic and financial crime issues of corruption, the shadow economy and money laundering. It investigates both the theoretical and practical aspects of these crimes, identifying their effects on economic, social and political life. This book presents these causes and effects with a state of the art review and with recent empirical research. It compares the international and transnational aspects of these economic and financial crimes through discussion and critical analysis. This volume will be of interest to researchers and policy makers working to study and prevent economic and financial crime, white collar crime, and organized crime.