The Illegal Sector, Money Laundering and the Legal Economy A Macroeconomic AnalysisMasciandaro, Donato
2000 Journal of Financial Crime
doi: 10.1108/eb025972
This paper presents a macroeconomic framework useful to the analysis of the relationships between the illegal sector, money laundering and the legal economy from a human as well as a financial viewpoint. Economists have not yet systematically studied the interactions between illegal sectors, moneylaundering activities and the legal market. This study is part of a larger area of research which takes a particular interest in the economic analysis of money laundering. In previous years this author has developed a microeconomic analysis of the moneylaundering mechanisms and of the related regulations this is a deeper examination of the macro consequences.
Bank Secrecy2000 Journal of Financial Crime
doi: 10.1108/eb025973
Bank secrecy and how it facilitates multiple opportunities for money laundering and various other criminal activities are matters in which governments must be interested. These matters have recently been the subject of a study carried out on behalf of the United Nations entitled Financial Havens, Banking Secrecy and Money Laundering. The study concluded that criminal organisations are making wide use of the opportunities offered by financial havens and offshore centres to launder criminal assets, thereby creating roadblocks to criminal investigations.
The Struggle Against Corruption A Comparative AnalysisHaynes, Andrew
2000 Journal of Financial Crime
doi: 10.1108/eb025975
The struggle against corruption is not an area where any state has had a sufficiently high success rate to become complacent, particularly when bearing in mind the evidence of the scale on which such crimes are being committed. This lack of success applies in terms of both the number of prosecutions brought and, at least in those states where the burden of proof rests on the state, the success rate in attaining successful prosecutions. Particular problems arise for developing countries. This paper considers reasons for the increase in the scale of the problem, and the steps a developing country will need to consider in terms of staff and institutional development, in addition to changes in its criminal and civil law. By comparison, it also looks at successful developments in developed countries that highlight approaches to the problem which may have an impact if used elsewhere.
Taxing the Proceeds of CrimeBell, R.E.
2000 Journal of Financial Crime
doi: 10.1108/eb025976
Organised crime groups, in particular drug traffickers, generate considerable amounts of money from their criminal activities. Over the last two decades jurisdictions around the world have therefore put in place confiscation and forfeiture legislation designed to remove such criminal gains. The Performance and Innovation Unit of the Cabinet Office, in its report entitled Recovering the Proceeds of Crime, has now recommended that a national confiscation agency NCA for England and Wales be established, the functions of which will include the institution of civil forfeiture proceedings and the application of the taxation legislation to the proceeds of criminal activity. If enacted, this will essentially provide a threefold strategy designed to remove criminal gains. First, where the evidence permits, the individual may be prosecuted for criminal offences and, upon conviction, a confiscation order may be sought against him. Secondly, if the evidence is not sufficient for criminal prosecution, the individual may have civil forfeiture proceedings instituted against him to deprive him of the illgotten gains, seeking to prove on the balance of probabilities that the property in his possession is, directly or indirectly, the proceeds of crime. Thirdly, if an individual can be shown to have received income during a particular period which the authorities suspect, but have insufficient evidence to prove, is the proceeds of crime, then they may apply the tax legislation to that income and raise a tax assessment against him.
Shaming International Financial CentresMaynard, Peter D.
2000 Journal of Financial Crime
doi: 10.1108/eb025977
With the advent of the FATF blacklist and the US FinCen advisories, the problem of perception and reality has been exacerbated. The international financial centres IFCs claim that the legislation and infrastructure are in place, and that money laundering, which still takes place largely in the metropolitan centres, is under control in their jurisdictions. The mainland countries perceive that money laundering is taking place in the IFCs. The situation is not unlike the story of two blindfolded men touching an elephant the first held the tail and thought that it was something dry and sinewy the second touched the tip of the trunk and thought the creature was something moist and flexible. The truth was somewhere in the middle.
Liability in Defamation and Negligence Following Breach of Bank SecrecyLatimer, Paul
2000 Journal of Financial Crime
doi: 10.1108/eb025978
Laws regulating securities markets such as the Securities and Exchange Commission laws in the USA, the Financial Services and Markets Act 1999 UK, the Australian Corporations Law and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission Act 1989 Commonwealth hereafter ASIC Act and their parallels around the world seek to achieve market integrity, investor confidence and an informed market as a result of disclosure of information relevant to the market. These laws should result in the efficient operation of the market and a competitive market. They aim to ensure that the market reflects the forces of genuine supply and demand, and that imperfections in the market such as fraud, or mismatch or nondisclosure of information, are corrected.
Australia Reform of Criminal Trial Procedure The Limits of the Right to SilenceDavies, G.L.
2000 Journal of Financial Crime
doi: 10.1108/eb025979
The report of the Working Group on Criminal Trial Procedure did not discuss the right to silence in any detail or arrive at any conclusion about it. There were, it appears, two reasons for this. First, it would have required considerable research and time and, as the report in effect remarks, the members did not have the luxury of either. Secondly, at the time this report was published, reports from the New South Wales Law Reform Commission and the Western Australian Law Reform Commission on this topic were expected. The former has not yet appeared the second is referred to below.
Nigeria Confiscation of the Proceeds of CorruptionOlaleyeOruene, T.O.
2000 Journal of Financial Crime
doi: 10.1108/eb025981
The eradication of corruption is feasible only through the confiscation of the proceeds of corruption. This could be achieved through the joint efforts of national governments, the international community and with the political will in the North. In this paper, it is proposed that zero tolerance to corruption by municipal reforms and international cooperation, could be demonstrated by confiscation of the proceeds of corruption, the billions of dollars illegally kept abroad through money laundering by kleptocrats. The proceeds of corruption should be monitored and policed by an international organisation like the International Criminal Tribunal. The body would avert the disappearance of the money into the black holes of foreign private accounts.