Short
Notes on Anti Money Laundering
1. The conversion or
transfer of property, the concealment or disguising of the nature of the
proceeds, the acquisition, possession or use of property, knowing that these
are derived from criminal activity and participate or assist the movement of
funds to make the proceeds appear legitimate is money laundering.
Money
obtained from certain crimes, such as extortion, insider trading, drug trafficking, and illegal gambling is
"dirty" and needs to be "cleaned" to appear to have been
derived from legal activities, so that banks and other financial institutions
will deal with it without suspicion. Money can be laundered by many methods
which vary in complexity and sophistication.
Money
laundering involves three steps: The first involves introducing cash into the
financial system by some means ("placement"); the second involves
carrying out complex financial transactions to camouflage the illegal source of
the cash ("layering"); and finally, acquiring wealth generated from
the transactions of the illicit funds ("integration"). Some of these
steps may be omitted, depending upon the circumstances. For example, non-cash
proceeds that are already in the financial system would not need to be placed.
Money
laundering is the process of making illegally-gained proceeds (i.e.,
"dirty money") appear legal (i.e., "clean"). Typically, it
involves three steps: placement, layering, and integration. First, the
illegitimate funds are furtively introduced into the legitimate financial
system. Then, the money is moved around to create confusion, sometimes by
wiring or transferring through numerous accounts. Finally, it is integrated
into the financial system through additional transactions until the "dirty
money" appears "clean".
2.Money laundering involves taking criminal proceeds and disguising
their illegal source in anticipation of ultimately using the criminal proceeds
to perform legal and illegal activities.
Simply put, money laundering is the process of making dirty money
look clean.
3. Money laundering methods
Money laundering:
The money laundering cycle can be broken down into three
distinct stages; however, it is important to remember that money laundering is
a single process. The stages of money laundering include the:
Placement Stage
Layering Stage
Integration Stage
The Placement Stage
The placement stage represents the initial entry of the "dirty" cash or proceeds of crime into the financial system. Generally, this stage serves two purposes: (a) it relieves the criminal of holding and guarding large amounts of bulky of cash; and (b) it places the money into the legitimate financial system. It is during the placement stage that money launderers are the most vulnerable to being caught. This is due to the fact that placing large amounts of money (cash) into the legitimate financial system may raise suspicions of officials.
The placement stage represents the initial entry of the "dirty" cash or proceeds of crime into the financial system. Generally, this stage serves two purposes: (a) it relieves the criminal of holding and guarding large amounts of bulky of cash; and (b) it places the money into the legitimate financial system. It is during the placement stage that money launderers are the most vulnerable to being caught. This is due to the fact that placing large amounts of money (cash) into the legitimate financial system may raise suspicions of officials.
The placement of the proceeds of crime can be done in a number
of ways. For example, cash could be packed into a suitcase and smuggled to a
country, or the launderer could use smurfs to defeat reporting threshold laws
and avoid suspicion. Some other common methods include:
Loan Repayment
Repayment of loans or credit cards with illegal proceeds
Gambling
Purchase of gambling chips or placing bets on sporting events
Currency Smuggling
The physical movement of illegal currency or monetary
instruments over the border
Currency Exchanges
Purchasing foreign money with illegal funds through foreign
currency exchanges
Blending Funds