MONEY LAUNDERING AND FINANCIAL CRIMES

Abstract

The process of money laundering is multi- dimensional and complex, which means making illegal or dirty money to look as if it had come from legal or legitimate source earned through normal business or trade activities (Haq et al., 2023). This process is fundamental for all those individuals engaged in criminal activities who intend of taking advantage (using) of the proceeds from their illegal activities while preventing from being detected from regulatory / law enforcement authorities (Granados and Vargas, 2022).The traditional process for money laundering comprises three stages: placement, layering, and integration, with current technology, however, all stages can be simultaneous (Gaviyau and Sibindi, 2023).Placement is that first entry point at which funds from illegal activity enter the the financial system by such mechanisms as cash businesses or financial institutions (Alhajeri and Alhashem, 2023).Layering It is a sequence of sophisticated transactions developed to hide the paper trail and remove the monies from the illegal having source through a series of bookkeeping and transactions (Alhajeri and Alhashem, 2023).