Measuring the success and the implementation of money laundering Dissertation

Measuring the success and the implementation of money laundering counter-measures - Dissertation Example In the early twentieth century, money laundering known as â€Å"dirty money† was seen primarily as a part of drug trafficking (or other criminal acts) where cash was deposited into banks with the express aim of transforming the proceeds from illegal acts into â€Å"clean† cash. In the last few decades, organised crime, which has come into being, is more sophisticated and global in nature, with even greater proceeds gained from the illegal activities. The term money laundering in the modern context, encompasses not only the aspect of ‘dirty money’ but also the act of ‘cleaning,’ or ‘masking,’ the proceeds from various criminal activities to make them seem legal; while at the same time new aspects on money laundering show clear links with global terrorism. Many of the new counter measure initiatives have a greater focus on the financial perspective of crimes and on determining criminal assets, to allow confiscation. There is also an increasing focus on the financial trails, which tend to link the main criminals with particular acts of crime. Such stringent measures have turned many of the countries as unsafe locations for the criminals, to ‘clean’ their money or lead a luxurious life with no apparent source of income. This paper will briefly explore the various aspects of money laundering, while examining in detail of some of the measures currently in use to counter money laundering, globally and locally, and analysing the extent of success in implementing these anti-money laundering measures. 1 Introduction â€Å"There are few other examples in history of mankind that so dramatically illustrate such concerted effort to denounce and discourage a practice which even a few years ago was neither understood not for that matter necessarily considered improper†(B. Rider, 1997, â€Å"Editorial†). 1.1 Background history Money laundering even a few decades back was not clearly understood, far less being considered as an act of criminality. It gained notoriety only during the last two-three decades when we find that the international community brought in various laws and policies as measures to counter the money laundering (van Duyne, 1998). It was during this time that many scholars turned their attention to this issue, leading to a large number of studies on the topic. While there have been many researches on the subject of criminal money laundering, a majority of the studies mainly deal with evaluating the extent of the money that is involved in the entire process, globally, that is, the nature of researches being primarily quantitative in nature. These studies with their quantitative analyses tend to provide an abstract perspective of the issue of money laundering, with no detailed information on the impact that such criminal activities have on the socio-economic and legal aspects of a country, at the national and global levels. These studies, which view only the figu rative extent of money laundering, deliberate primarily on the various processes adopted by the criminal organisations to escape surveillance, thus removing focus from other