The basic principle of money laundering is to simply take the money obtained through through a questionable, more specifically, a criminal act, and make it look as though it came from legal sources and activities. In this way, the goal is to separate the money from the crime, and therefore separate the criminal from the crime. The criminal walks free and does not fear that law enforcement will find either them or the cash.
Who needs to launder money? Well, the typical kinds of people needing to do so are embezzlers, corrupt public officers or officials and dishonest politicians, con artists, the mafia and gang lords, drug dealers and traffickers, and terrorists. Those in the industry of illegal drug sale are most likely those most in need of laundering as they tend to deal in cash almost exclusively. And aside from the previous mentioned benefits to the criminal, another benefit is just simply that money is very heavy. One million US dollars equals approximately two hundred and six pounds. A million dollars worth of cocaine weighs approximately forty four pounds. That’s a hefty difference.
The term anti-money laundering refers to a set of controls that are being developed and used by the legal departments and the banks throughout the world. These include regulations that require such institutions to not only take their part in the prevention of such activity, but in the reporting of it as well. The issue of money laundering has always been one that has been of concern, however came into the spotlight following the attacks in 2001 on September 11th at the World Trade Center in New York, USA.
Most of the institutions throughout the world, financial and non-financial are required by law to identify when such actions are taken place and to report these actions immediately to the intelligence divisions of their institutions as well as the units in their respective countries. In this way, the banks and institutions are not only playing an enormous role in protecting investments and capturing criminals of all sorts, but in the safety and protection of the citizens of the world.
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