The real cost of money laundering is not only monetary
David Lindsay, 18 June 2021
Money laundering can often be seen as a somewhat nebulous, victimless crime that doesn’t affect the everyday person. But Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit Guidance and Outreach Manager Dr Clara Borg Bonaci tells David Lindsay about how money laundering not only deprives government coffers of funds that could be used for the betterment of society, it also feeds serious predicate crimes such as the trafficking of drugs and arms, human smuggling and child sexual exploitation – ‘horribly destructive crimes that have an immense social cost’
Money laundering is often seen as a victimless crime that doesn’t necessarily affect the average person on the street. What are the ramifications of such practices on a wider scale? What are the hidden predicate crimes and what are their effects on the economy at large?
The truth is that the fight against money laundering and the funding of terrorism can be highly regulatory and involves the implementation of numerous laws, which makes it easier for us, and the entities we supervise, to sometimes forget or be disconnected from why we are actually doing it.
In its simplest form, money laundering is the process of placing funds that have been generated illegally into the financial system in such a way that they are disconnected from the criminal activity, so that even the identity of the person who conducted that crime is obfuscated and the funds cannot be immediately connected to the person or the crime.
