The offense of money laundering in modern comparative legislation

Abstract

Money laundering is a crime of international character recognized by the most legislations and legal theorists throughout the world. It is the influx of proceeds from crime, apparently legal, in order to enable the future use of that property and the acquisition of new incomes. Money laundering crimes are regulated by international agreements, among which the most significant is the United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances and the Council of Europe Convention on Laundering, Search, Seizure and Confiscation of the Proceeds from Crime and on the Financing of Terrorism. Vienna Convention was the first international agreement addressed to money laundering and the most important international commitment on this matter, as all the future treaties rely on it. The article 3 (1) of the convention calls on states to incriminate three types of activities, when they are committed intentionally. The primary intent was to criminalize the process by which one conceals the existence, illegal source, or illegal application of income, and then disguises that income to make it appear legitimate. The convention also is aimed to stem the flow of illicit profits back to the criminal enterprise used to capitalize criminal profits and to expand criminal activity. In this article, the author discusses a number of important issues related to the money laundering crimes. In that context, special attention was paid to demonstration and analysis of statutes of USA, Great Britain and Russian Federation.