Asset or money laundering: what does this crime consist of?

On the list of financial crimes, one of the largest is money laundering. This is because It is usually associated with other types of illicit activities, such as drug trafficking, corruption, kidnapping, among others.

But, What exactly is this practice about?

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) points out that this crime “consists of giving an appearance of legitimate or licit origin to goods – monetary or not, which in reality are products or “profits” of serious crimes.” In other words, what is also known as money laundering disguises financial assets so that the illegal activity that produced them is not detected.

Generally, This is done by placement, overlay or injection.

The placement implies that ‘dirty money’ is injected into the legitimate financial systemthe superimposition in hiding the origin of the money through a series of transactions and accounting tricks, and the injection in disbursing the amount obtained to an official account.

Asset laundering.

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In some cases, this operation is done through smuggling, transactions that involve gambling, purchase and sale of assets, etc. It is worth clarifying that the Unodc points out that illicit assets “They always leave a mark.”

In Colombia, for example, the Penal Code establishes that any person who “acquires, safeguards, invests, transports, transforms, stores, conserves, guards or manages assets that have their immediate or immediate origin” in any of the 65 crimes associated with this activity faces a sentence of 10 to 30 years in prisonas well as a fine of between 1,000 and 50,000 current legal monthly minimum wages.

And it becomes clear that “Money laundering will be punishable even when the activities from which the assets came, or the acts punishable in the previous sections, had been carried out, totally or partially, abroad.”

(See: Heir to the Cartier jewelry store would have ties to Colombians accused of drug trafficking)

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