Money Laundering - Assignment Example

Money Laundering a) Money laundering as defined in the proceeds of crime (2002) is the process that involves hiding of illegal sources of money, the crime occurs when an individual conceals criminal property, and when an individual possesses, acquires, or uses criminalproperty.Also, the crime of money laundering occurs when an individual enters into an arrangement that involves criminal properties. Under the United Kingdom law money, laundering is a serious crime and in most cases carries a jail sentence of up to fourteen years. In most cases money laundering involves the criminal activities that result in some sought of material benefits, money laundering activities are disguised in such a way that the law enforcement activities fail to detect the crime[Spr09]. i. Tax related crime, that is tax evasion tax management and tax avoidance greatly relate to the concept of money laundering, this is because in most cases the techniques within the two concepts are substantially related to each other. The United Kingdomlaw considers the tax related crimes as predicate offences, tax crime also operate as predicate offense for money laundering charges. Even with the contradictions revolving around tax related crimes, tax evasion, tax management, and tax avoidance are predicate crimes for the purpose of prosecution in relation to money laundering. ii. Foreign tax evasion is not treated the same way as domestic tax evasion for the purpose of commission of predicate crime, this is because the foreign tax evasion concept is more complex than the domestic tax system different nations do not tax the economic whole of a transaction[Har04] iii. Under the PoCA, several factors contribute to the actus rues and others men’s rea for commission of offences revolving around money laundering. The crimes that constitute the actus rues include the concealing, disguising, converting, transferring of criminal property, the actus rues crimes also include any removal of criminal property from wales and England. Conviction of the crimes under the actus rues is a fourteen year jail term, a fine or both, in prosecution the jury must prove some factors. these factors include if the offender committed an act of disguising or concealing, is related to the criminal property, if he or she benefits form the criminal conduct and whether the criminal suspected or knew that the property would benefit him criminally. Examples of these crimes include the crimes of transferring criminal property out of the country, giving criminal property to another individual and buying properties with stolen money[Lau09].Within the United Kingdom law, factors that contribute to the men’srea or the state of an individual’s awareness revolve around intent, negligence, and recklessness. If the offender commits the crime with intent then he or she is more culpable than the one that acts out of recklessness. In some of the laundering cases, the launder may have no knowledge he or she is committing a money laundering crime on behalf of others. In the case money laundering the prosecution has to prove the “men’s rea” of the offender, they need to prove if the offender known or suspected the whole process of criminal activity, that is acquisition, use and retention The United Kingdom law imposes duties to those working under the regulated sectors; these duties mostly revolve around the instances of money laundering. The crimes within the regulated sectors mainly falls in the crimes of failing to disclose and failure to disclose for the nominated officer within the regulated sector, the proceeds of crime act places all a duty on all the employees within the regulated sector[Wil05]. Each and every employee within the regulated sectors has a duty to report any instance of money laundering, may it be “know or suspect” instance. Employees should report any person they know or suspect engages in the crime of money laundering, failure to report the employee is liable to five years imprisonment, fine, or both. In such cases, the prosecution must prove that the individual had the information regarding the crime while working within the regulated sector, the employee suspected that there were activities of money laundering within the sector but failed to report to the relevant authority or the nominated officer[Abb09]. Regulated sectors deal with activities such as insurance, managing, safeguarding or administering investments, or issuing electronic money. All nominated officer should also disclose any known or suspicion of money laundering, in most cases the nominated officers are the compliance officers who at time refuse to report the cases of money laundering[Swi07]. b) Current proposals in increasing the transparency of the beneficial ownership of legal structure have some potential impacts. Even with the fact that the lack of accountability and transparency may facilitate elicit activities, damage the business environment and erode trust, there are also impacts associated with the increase in transparency. Increase in beneficial ownership may increase the potential for anonymity, this means that individuals that intend to participate in criminal activities can use the companies as a “front,” in that they can use the companies to launder the proceeds of crime and finance crime[Bro05]. Bibliography Spr09: , (Sproat, 2009), Har04: , (Harvey, 2004), Lau09: , (Lau S & Harvey, 2009), Wil05: , (Williams, 2005), Abb09: , (Abbot, 2009), Swi07: , (Swinton, 2007), Bro05: , (Brodeur & Shearing, 2005), Read More