The Studies On Crime Of Money Laundering

On March 14, 1997, the "money-laundering crime" was first established in Article 191 of the new penal code of China. Due to the beginning of anti-money-laundering legislation of our country, and few cases in the judicial practice as well as a wide range of fields that the money-laundering crime involves, such as law, finance, taxation affairs, commerce and foreign affairs, etc., in addition to no special anti-money-laundering legislation in our country, the punishment and prevention of money-laundering crimes is in the primary phase of seeking for experience, during which further studies on, reference to and use of the international and other foreign countries' theories and practice in the aspect of anti-money-laundering are urgent to be needed to promote the studies on anti-money-laundering theories of our country and strengthen our prevention and punishment of money-laundering crimes. Based on the collection of and study on special materials, this paper makes a comprehensive research on some laws, theoretic and practical problems related to money-laundering crimes in three parts.In Part 1, the concept of money-laundering crime, the common methods and means of money-laundering, and the features and hazards of money-laundering crimes are mainly dealt with. The seven present definitions of the concept of money-laundering crime in the theoretic circle of our country are analyzed one by one. It is thought that the money-laundering crime refers to the behavior of providing some methods such as capital accounts, etc. to conceal and hide the sources and properties of earnings of drug crimes, Mafia-like organized crimes, crimes of terrorist activities and smuggling crimes and their benefits which are known. On the money-laundering methods and means, the author thinks that with the appearance of electric trading system and involvement of money-laundering professionals, the means of money-laundering crimes develop from the simple to the complex, showing the features of internationalization, complication and diversification. In addition to using the 12 traditional methods of money-laundering, the money-launderers employ the popularization of personal computers and the development of Internet, changing the money-laundering activities from the real world to the virtual space and use electric money, network banks and gambling houses online to committed more secret money-laundering crimes. On the features of money-laundering crimes, the author thinks that there are mainly the following aspects. The first is the invisibility of quantity of money-laundering crimes. It is very difficult to accurate define the scale of money-laundering crimes at present. The second is the particularity of money-laundering objects, which are the benefits from crimes, referring to the total of assets from criminal activities. The third is the complication of the process of money laundering crimes. A complete process of money-laundering often goes through three steps of placement, implantation and fusion, which sometimes appear one after another and sometimes recycle, and whose operating process can be long or short. The fourth is the specialty and technicality of money laundering methods and means. The fifth is the specialization of money-laundering subjects. Because money-laundering activities often involve complex financial systems and legal systems at home and abroad, only the professionals who are familiar with the financial and legal systems at home and abroad can be competent for them. The sixth is the internationalization of money-laundering crimes. The money-laundering crime is an international crime without national boundaries, with a wide range, prominently represented in the aspects of the internationalization of money-laundering activities and money-laundering subjects as well as transnational flow of benefits from crimes. The hazards of money-laundering crimes are mainly represented in the following aspects. The first is to provide material basis for traffic in drugs, terrorist activities, smuggling and organized crimes, e...