Money Laundering - How Big Is The Problem

Money Laundering is a World-wide problem

Billy's Home Page \| A Brief History \| What is Money Laundering? \| How Big is the Problem? \| The Money Laundering Process \| Stages of the Process \| Money Laundering Methods \| How Can We Prevent It? \| Effects on Financial Institutions \| Business Areas Prone To Money Laundering \| UK Legislation \| Money Laundering Offences \| International Initiatives \| The Future \| Conclusions \| Recommendations

Money Laundering - How Big Is The Problem?
by Billy Steel

Contents
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A Brief History
Here is a dig into the origins of Money Laundering and how it came about.

What is Money Laundering?
Definitions of the phrase "money laundering".

How Big is the Problem?
Estimate of the amount of money being laundered annually.

The Money Laundering Process
The 3 stages of Money Laundering - Placement - Layering - Integration.

Stages of the Process
How Money Laundering Stages are achieved.

Money Laundering Methods
Techniques used by money launderers.

How Can We Prevent It?
Some measures to prevent this crime.

Effects on Financial Institutions
How this crime affects financial institutions, legally and financially.

Business Areas Prone To Money Laundering
Which businesses are targetted by the money launderer.

UK Legislation
Which legislation in the UK covers Money Laundering.

Money Laundering Offences
What the five basic offences of Money Laundering are.

International Initiatives
Some measures to prevent this crime on an international level.

The Future
Future methods of Laundering cash?.

Conclusions
Some conclusions I have about this area of criminality.

Recommendations
Some recommendations on what can be done to strengthen the fight against this insidious crime.

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Estimates of the size of the money laundering problem totals more than $500 billion annually world - wide. This is a staggering amount and detrimental by any calculation to the financial systems involved.

Clearly the problem is enormous. It is also clear that money laundering extends far beyond hiding drug profits. In the UK this is evidenced in the legislation that has been enacted to counter this crime. For example, confiscation and money laundering provisions are contained in the Drug Trafficking Offences Act 1986 (DTOA), in the Criminal Justice Act 1988 and the Criminal Justice (International Co-operation) Act 1990. These provisions focus particularly on drug trafficking.

However, the Criminal Justice Act 1993 makes the laundering of the proceeds of non-drug trafficking crimes an offence for the first time. It was not until the enactment of the Criminal Justice (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 1995 and the Proceeds of Crime (Scotland) Act 1995 (both came into effect from 1-4-96) that Scotland came into line with England regarding the extension of money laundering to cover all crime proceeds.

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by billysteel@hotmail.com