Money Laundering, Typologies and Asset Recovery

The terms

• Integration

  Integration is the final stage of money laundering, in which cleaned funds re-enter the legitimate economy as apparently lawful wealth, such as property, business assets, investments or luxury goods.

  Domain: Financial Crime

• Layering

  Layering is the middle stage of money laundering, in which criminals move funds through many transactions, accounts or entities to hide their origin and make the trail hard to follow.

  Domain: Financial Crime

• Money Mule

  A money mule is a person who receives and passes on money for someone else, knowingly or not, often for a small fee, helping criminals move illegal funds through their own bank account.

  Domain: Financial Crime

• Placement

  Placement is the first stage of money laundering, in which cash or other criminal proceeds are put into the financial system or converted into other assets so that they can be moved and used.

  Domain: Financial Crime

• Red Flags

  Red flags are warning signs in a customer's behaviour, a transaction or a document that hint at laundering, fraud or sanctions evasion and justify closer scrutiny.

  Domain: Financial Crime

• Trade Finance Risk

  Trade finance risk is the exposure a bank takes when it funds, guarantees or pays for international trade, because the supporting documents can hide money laundering, sanctions breaches or fraud.

  Domain: Financial Crime

• Trade Mis-invoicing

  Trade mis-invoicing is deliberately stating a false price, quantity or description of goods or services on trade documents, so that value moves across borders in a way that hides its real purpose.

  Domain: Financial Crime

• Tunneling

  Tunnelling is when controlling shareholders or managers siphon a company's assets or profits to themselves or their other firms, leaving minority shareholders and creditors worse off.

  Domain: Financial Crime

• Wilful Blindness

  Wilful blindness is deliberately avoiding finding out the truth about something you suspect, so that you can claim not to have known. Many courts treat it as equal to actual knowledge.

  Domain: Financial Crime