Money laundering

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Money laundering is a process some criminals do to hide the money they make from crimes or political corruption, which is called "dirty money". Such dirty money needs to be "cleaned" so it looks like it came from legal sources, and banks can accept it without being suspicious on where it came from. Criminals also do money laundering to make it hard for the police to find out where the criminal got the money.

One way criminals launder money is by using the money earned from illegal activities to buy things (like gold and silver, bitcoin, shares or casino chips, other legitimate business activities like food or liquor stores) and then selling those things to get the money back. If a criminal buys and sells things many times it is hard for the police to find out where the criminal got the money.

Some countries have laws to try to stop money laundering. These laws help the police to find out when criminals try to do money laundering. Under the laws in some countries, business people must:
tell the Government when someone pays them a lot of money (for example $10,000) or when someone puts a lot of money in their bank
tell the Government if they think someone is doing money laundering, and
write down on paper, or on a computer, every time someone gives them a lot of money or they give someone a lot of money.

In 1989, some countries set up a group of people from different Governments to tell countries the best ways to stop money laundering. This organization is called the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering. The following countries have joined the Financial Action Task Force (FATF/GAFI):

Argentina
Aruba
Australia
Austria
Bahrain
Belgium
Brazil
Canada
China
Curaçao 
Denmark
European Commission
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Hong Kong, China
Iceland
India
Ireland
Italy
Japan
Kuwait
Luxembourg
Malaysia
Mexico
Netherlands
New Zealand
Norway
Oman
Portugal
Qatar
Republic of Korea  
Russian Federation
Saint Maarten
Saudi Arabia
Singapore
South Africa
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
Turkey
United Arab Emirates
United Kingdom
United States 

Money laundering in Canada

In Canada money laundering is a serious issue. The government of Canada has allocated more than $70 million to fight money laundering.

The province of British Columbia announced it is holding a public inquiry into this issue.https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/money-laundering-public-inquiry-decision-1.5136952

 References 

Category:Organized crime
Category:Financial crimes