System of International Cooperation in the Area of Money Laundering (From Resource Material Series No. 46, P 18-60, 1995, Kunihiro Horiuchi, ed. -- See NCJ-159652)

• NCJ Number: 159654
• Author(s): E U Savona
• Date Published: 1995
• Length: 43 pages
• Sale Source: United Nations Asia and Far East Institute for the Prevention of Crime and Treatment of Offenders
• Publication Type: Program/Project Description
• Language: English
• Country: Japan
• Note: *This document is currently unavailable from NCJRS.

Annotation

This paper examines the growing importance of money laundering as an international criminal phenomenon and the issue of international cooperation in the prevention and control of money laundering.

Abstract

After an overview of money laundering, the author discusses legal cultures and systems designed to counter money laundering; the laws and policies of selected countries are also reviewed. The paper notes that in their efforts to curb money laundering, both international and national agencies and organization use a variety of methods, but these can be grouped into two frameworks. The first framework focuses on the criminalization of money laundering and the power that law enforcement officials and the courts must have to investigate and prosecute these crimes. The second framework focuses on the duty of financial institutions to "know your customer" and emphasizes the need to eliminate the obstacles to disclosure presented by bank secrecy laws. Under such laws, financial institutions have a duty to examine and identify clients. The selected countries whose laws and policies toward money laundering are reviewed are in the Latin America and Caribbean region, the Pacific-Asian region, and Europe.