Placing "dirty" money in a service company, where it is layered with legitimate income and then integrated into the flow of money, is a common form of money laundering.
In the past, the term "money laundering" was applied only tofinancial transactions related toorganized crime. Today its definition is often expanded by government and international regulators such as the USOffice of the Comptroller of the Currency to mean "any financial transaction which generates anasset or avalue as the result of an illegal act," which may involve actions such astax evasion orfalse accounting. In the UK, it does not need to involve money, but anyeconomic good. Courts involve money laundering committed by private individuals, drug dealers, businesses, corrupt officials, members of criminal organizations such as theMafia, and even states.
InUnited States law, money laundering is the practice of engaging in financial transactions to conceal the identity, source, or destination of illegally gained money. InUnited Kingdom law, thecommon law definition is wider. The act is defined as "the process by which the proceeds of crime are converted into assets which appear to have a legitimate origin, so that they can be retained permanently or recycled into further criminal enterprises".[1]
While existing laws were used to fight money laundering during the period ofProhibition in the United States during the 1930s, dedicatedAnti-Money Laundering legislation was only implemented in the 1980s.[2]Organized crime received a major boost from Prohibition and a large source of new funds that were obtained from illegal sales of alcohol. The successful prosecution ofAl Capone ontax evasion brought in a new emphasis by the state and law enforcement agencies to track and confiscate money, but existing laws against tax evasion could not be used once gangsters started paying their taxes.
In the 1980s, thewar on drugs led governments again to turn to money laundering rules in an attempt to track and seize the proceeds ofdrug crimes in order to catch the organizers and individuals running drug empires. It also had the benefit, from a law enforcement point of view, of turning rules of evidence "upside down". Law enforcers normally have to prove an individual is guilty to seize their property, but withcivil forfeiture laws, money can be confiscated and it is up to the individual to prove that the source of funds is legitimate to get the money back.[3] This makes it much easier for law enforcement agencies and provides for much lowerburdens of proof.
However, this process has been abused by some law enforcement agencies to take and keep money without strong evidence of related criminal activity, to be used to supplement their own budgets. Civil asset forfeiture has been harshly criticized bycivil liberties advocates for its greatly reduced standards for conviction,reverse onus, financialconflicts of interests arising when the law enforcement agencies who decide whether or not to seize assets stand to keep those assets for themselves,[4][5][6][7] and violation ofseparation of powers anddue process.[8]
The11 September attacks in 2001, which led to thePatriot Act in the U.S. and similar legislation worldwide, led to a new emphasis on money laundering laws to combatterrorism financing.[9] TheGroup of Seven (G7) nations used theFinancial Action Task Force on Money Laundering to put pressure on governments around the world to increase surveillance and monitoring of financial transactions and share this information between countries. Starting in 2002, governments around the world upgraded money laundering laws and surveillance and monitoring systems of financial transactions. Anti-money laundering regulations have become a much larger burden forfinancial institutions and enforcement has stepped up significantly.
During 2011–2015 a number of major banks faced ever-increasing fines for breaches of money laundering regulations. This includedHSBC, which was fined $1.9 billion in December 2012,[10] andBNP Paribas, which was fined $8.9 billion in July 2014 by the U.S. government.[11] Many countries introduced or strengthened border controls on the amount of cash that can be carried and introduced central transaction reporting systems where all financial institutions have to report all financial transactions electronically. For example, in 2006,Australia set up theAUSTRAC system and required the reporting of all financial transactions.[12]
With the surge in digital asset in the late 2010s, there has been a noticeable rise in money laundering and fraud tied to cryptocurrency. In 2021 alone, cybercriminals managed to secure US$14 billion in cryptocurrency through various illicit activities.[13] It has been suggested that the expansion of the cryptocurrency trading created new avenues for "secrecy-seeking capital" from the 2010s onward, when money laundering andtax evasion throughtax haven jurisdictions became more difficult, following various international policy initiatives for example within theOECD and theEuropean Union.[14]
The East and Southeast Asia regions have become areas of major concern for money laundering. TheUnited Nations Office on Drugs and Crime noted in a 2019 transnational organized crime assessment that threats arising from organized crime in Southeast Asia were becoming more deeply integrated within the region itself, as well as with neighboring and connected regions.[20] As the region's illicit economies expanded and evolved, including the growth of the synthetic drug industry, casinos and economic zones in the region's border areas became important hubs for money laundering.[20] Sites such as theGolden Triangle Special Economic Zone in Laos have been identified as hotspots for money laundering and various other types of transnational crime.[21]
Other high risk sectors for money laundering include commercial banks, securities companies, currency exchange shops, money transfer service providers, insurance companies, real estate agencies[22], and the trade in valuable materials such as art, antiquities and wildlife products.[23][24] As these industries have grown, the presence and sophistication of money laundering operations has too, creating a backdoor for organized crime to launder illicit funds into the global financial system.[23]
Casino junkets operating from Macao emerged as a major facilitator of money laundering, as has the more recently established online gambling industry.[25] The rise of the cyber-enabled fraud industry across Southeast Asia, especially in Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos, and the Philippines, has given rise to new platforms providing guarantees and facilitating the laundering of funds through app-based channels.[26] One such case is that of Huione, a Cambodia-based operation that blockchain analysis firms have identified as one of the leading actors in this space. Blockchain analytics firm Elliptic described Huione as the "largest illicit online marketplace to have ever operated".[27] Global law enforcement has begun to respond to the threats posed by such platforms, and in May 2025 the U.S. Department of the Treasury'sFinancial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued a finding and notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) pursuant to Section 311 of the USA PATRIOT Act that identified Huione Group as a financial institution of primary money laundering concern, seeking to sever its access to the U.S. financial system.[28]
Money laundering is the conversion or transfer of property; the concealment or disguising of the nature of the proceeds; the acquisition, possession or use of property, knowing that these are derived from criminal acts; the participating in or assisting the movement of funds to make the proceeds appear legitimate.
Money obtained from certain crimes, such asextortion,insider trading,drug trafficking,human trafficking, andillegal gambling is "dirty" and needs to be "cleaned" to appear to have been derived from legal activities, so that banks and other financial institutions will deal with it without suspicion. Money can be laundered by many methods that vary in complexity and sophistication.
Money laundering typically involves three steps: The first involves introducing cash into the financial system by some means ("placement"); the second involves carrying out complex financial transactions to camouflage the illegal source of the cash ("layering"); and finally, acquiring wealth generated from the transactions of the illicit funds ("integration"). Some of these steps may be omitted, depending on the circumstances. For example, non-cash proceeds that are already in the financial system would not need to be placed.[29]
Money laundering is the process of making illegally-gained proceeds (i.e., "dirty money") appear legal (i.e., "clean"). Typically, it involves three steps: placement, layering, and integration. First, the illegitimate funds are furtively introduced into the legitimate financial system. Then, the money is moved around to create confusion, sometimes by wiring or transferring through numerous accounts. Finally, it is integrated into the financial system through additional transactions until the "dirty money" appears "clean".[30]
Money laundering can take several forms, although most methodologies can be categorized into one of a few types. These include "bank methods, smurfing [also known as structuring], currency exchanges, and double-invoicing".[31]
Structuring: Often known assmurfing, is a method of placement whereby cash is broken into smaller deposits of money, used to defeat suspicion of money laundering and to avoid anti-money laundering reporting requirements. A sub-component of this is to use smaller amounts of cash to purchase bearer instruments, such as money orders, and then ultimately deposit those, again in small amounts.[32]
Bulk cash smuggling: This involves physically smuggling cash to another jurisdiction and depositing it in a financial institution, such as anoffshore bank, that offers greaterbank secrecy or less rigorous money laundering enforcement.[33]
Cash-intensive businesses: In this method, a business that is typically expected to receive a large proportion of its revenue as cash uses its accounts to deposit criminally derived cash. This method of money laundering often causes organized crime andcorporate crime to overlap.[34] Such enterprises often operate openly and in doing so generate cash revenue from incidental legitimate business in addition to the illicit cash. In such cases, the business will usually claim all cash received as legitimate earnings. Service businesses are best suited to this method, as such enterprises have little or novariable costs and/or a large ratio between revenue and variable costs, which makes it difficult to detect discrepancies between revenues and costs. Examples areparking structures,strip clubs,tanning salons,car washes,arcades,bars,restaurants,casinos,barber shops,DVD stores,movie theaters, andbeach resorts.
Trade-based laundering: This method is one of the newest and most complex forms of money laundering.[35] This involves under- or over-valuinginvoices to disguise the movement of money.[36] For example, the art market has been accused of being an ideal vehicle for money laundering due to several unique aspects of art such as the subjective value of artworks as well as the secrecy of auction houses about the identity of the buyer and seller.[37] According to theNational Crime Agency, one strategy that is favored by high-net-worth individuals is specialist storage facilities. Art kept in these spaces has been used by individuals to evade sanctions and launder the proceeds of crime.[38]
Shell companies and trusts: Trusts and shell companies disguise the true owners of money. Trusts and corporate vehicles, depending on the jurisdiction, need not disclose their true owner. Sometimes referred to by the slang termrathole, though that term usually refers to a person acting as the fictitious owner rather than the business entity.[39]
Round-tripping: Here, money is deposited in acontrolled foreign corporation offshore, preferably in atax haven where minimal records are kept, and then shipped back as aforeign direct investment, exempt from taxation. A variant of this is to transfer money to a law firm or similar organization as funds on account of fees, then to cancel the retainer and, when the money is remitted, represent the sums received from the lawyers as a legacy under a will or proceeds of litigation.[citation needed]
Bank capture: In this case, money launderers or criminals buy a controlling interest in a bank, preferably in a jurisdiction with weak money laundering controls, and then move money through the bank without scrutiny.
Invoice Fraud: An example is when a criminal contacts a company saying that the supplier payment details have changed. They then provide alternative, fraudulent details in order for you to pay them money.[40]
Casinos: In this method, an individual walks into a casino and buys chips with illicit cash. The individual will then play for a relatively short time. When the person cashes in the chips, they will expect to take payment in a check, or at least get a receipt so they can claim the proceeds asgambling winnings.[33]
Other gambling: Money is spent on gambling, preferably on high odds games. One way to minimize risk with this method is to bet on every possible outcome of some event that has many possible outcomes, so no outcome(s) have short odds, and the bettor will lose only thevigorish and will have one or more winning bets that can be shown as the source of money. The losing bets will remain hidden.
Black salaries: A company may have unregistered employees without written contracts and pay them cash salaries. Dirty money might be used to pay them.[41]
Tax amnesties: For example, those that legalize unreported assets and cash in tax havens.[42]
Transaction Laundering: When a merchant unknowingly processes illicit credit card transactions for another business.[43] It is a growing problem[44][45] and recognised as distinct from traditional money laundering in using the payments ecosystem to hide that the transaction even occurred[46] (e.g. the use of fake front websites[47]). Also known as "undisclosed aggregation" or "factoring".[48][49]
Online job marketplaces such asFreelancer.com andFiverr, which accept funds from clients and hold them inescrow to pay freelancers. A money launderer can post a token job on one of these sites, and send the money for the site to hold in escrow. The launderer (or his associate) can then sign on as a freelancer (using a different account and IP address), accept and complete the job, and be paid the funds.[50]
Through Sports: Investigation teams have identified sport profits as a common way to launder money. In Latin America, in particular, drug traffickers are frequently found to own Soccer Clubs, and to launder money through their intermediate, by buying and selling players, selling tickets and merchandise.[51]
In theory,electronic money should provide as easy a method of transferring value without revealing identity as untracked banknotes, especially wire transfers involving anonymity-protecting numbered bank accounts. In practice, however, the record-keeping capabilities of Internet service providers and other network resource maintainers tend to frustrate that intention. While somecryptocurrencies under recent development have aimed to provide more possibilities of transaction anonymity for various reasons, the degree to which they succeed — and, in consequence, the degree to which they offer benefits for money laundering efforts — is controversial. Solutions such asZCash andMonero ― known asprivacy coins[52] ― are examples of cryptocurrencies that provide unlinkable anonymity via proofs and/or obfuscation of information (ring signatures).[53] While not suitable for large-scale crimes, privacy coins like Monero are suitable for laundering money made through small-scale crimes.[54]
Apart from traditional cryptocurrencies,Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) are also commonly used in connection with money laundering activities.[55] NFTs are often used to performWash Trading by creating several differentwallets for one individual, generating several fictitious sales and consequently selling the respective NFT to a third party.[56] According to a report byChainalysis, these types of wash trades are becoming increasingly popular among money launderers especially due to the largely anonymous nature of transactions on NFT marketplaces.[57][58] Auction platforms for NFT sales may face regulatory pressure to comply with anti-money laundering legislation.[59]
Additionally,cryptocurrency mixers have been increasingly used by cybercriminals over the past decade to launder funds.[60] A mixer blends the cryptocurrencies of many users together to obfuscate the origins and owners of funds, enabling a greater degree of privacy on public blockchains likeBitcoin andEthereum.[61] Although not explicitly illegal in many jurisdictions, the legality of mixers is controversial.[62] The use of the mixerTornado Cash in the laundering of funds stolen by theDPRK-associatedLazarus Group led theOffice of Foreign Assets Control to sanction it, prompting some users to sue the Treasury Department.[63] Proponents have argued mixers allow users to protect their privacy and that the government lacks the authority to restrict access to decentralized software. In the United States,FinCEN requires mixers to register as money service businesses.[64]
In 2013,Jean-Loup Richet, a research fellow atESSEC ISIS, surveyed new techniques that cybercriminals were using in a report written for theUnited Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.[65] A common approach was to use adigital currency exchanger service which converted dollars into a digital currency calledLiberty Reserve, and could be sent and received anonymously. The receiver could convert the Liberty Reserve currency back into cash for a small fee. In May 2013, the US authorities shut down Liberty Reserve, charging its founder and various others with money laundering.[66]
To avoid the usage of decentralized digital money such asBitcoin for the profit of crime and corruption, Australia is planning to strengthen the nation's anti-money laundering laws.[67] The characteristics of Bitcoin—it is completely deterministic, protocol-based and can be difficult to censor[68]—make it possible to circumvent national laws using services likeTor to obfuscate transaction origins. Bitcoin relies completely on cryptography, not on a central entity running under aKYC framework. There are several cases in which criminals have cashed out a significant amount ofBitcoin after ransomware attacks, drug dealings, cyber fraud and gunrunning.[69] However, many digital currency exchanges are now operating KYC programs under threat of regulation from the jurisdictions they operate.[70][71]
Reverse money laundering is a process that disguises a legitimate source of funds that are to be used for illegal purposes.[72] It is usually perpetrated for the purpose of financing terrorism[73] but can be also used by criminal organizations that have invested in legal businesses and would like to withdraw legitimate funds from official circulation. Unaccounted cash received via disguising financial transactions is not included in official financial reporting and could be used to evade taxes, hand in bribes and pay "under-the-table" salaries.[74] For example, in anaffidavit filed on 24 March 2014 inUnited States District Court, Northern California, San Francisco Division, FBI special agent Emmanuel V. Pascua alleged that several people associated with theChee Kung Tong organization, and California State SenatorLeland Yee, engaged in reverse money laundering activities.
The problem of such fraudulent encashment practices (obnalichka in Russian) has become acute in Russia and other countries of the former Soviet Union. The Eurasian Group on Combating Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism (EAG) reported that the Russian Federation, Ukraine, Turkey, Serbia, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Armenia and Kazakhstan have encountered a substantial shrinkage of tax base and shifting money supply balance in favor of cash. These processes have complicated the planning and management of the economy and contributed to the growth of theshadow economy.[75]
Many regulatory and governmental authorities issue estimates each year for the amount of money laundered, either worldwide or within their national economy. In 1996, a spokesperson for theIMF estimated that 2–5% of the worldwide global economy involved laundered money.[76] TheFinancial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF), an intergovernmental body set up to combat money laundering, stated, "Due to the illegal nature of the transactions, precise statistics are not available and it is therefore impossible to produce a definitive estimate of the amount of money that is globally laundered every year. The FATF therefore does not publish any figures in this regard."[77] Academic commentators have likewise been unable to estimate the volume of money with any degree of assurance.[29] Various estimates of the scale of global money laundering are sometimes repeated often enough to make some people regard them as factual—but no researcher has overcome the inherent difficulty of measuring an actively concealed practice.
Regardless of the difficulty in measurement, the amount of money laundered each year is in thebillions of US dollars and poses a significant policy concern for governments.[29] As a result, governments and international bodies have undertaken efforts to deter, prevent, and apprehend money launderers. Financial institutions have likewise undertaken efforts to prevent and detect transactions involving dirty money, both as a result of government requirements and to avoid the reputational risk involved. Issues relating to money laundering have existed as long as there have beenlarge-scale criminal enterprises. Modern anti-money laundering laws have developed along with the modernwar on drugs.[78] In more recent times anti-money laundering legislation is seen as an adjunct to the financial crime ofterrorist financing in that both crimes usually involve the transmission of funds through the financial system (although money laundering relates to where the money has comefrom, and terrorist financing relating to where the money is goingto). Finally, people, vessels, organisations and governments can be sanctioned due to international law-breaking, war (and of course tit-for-tat sanctions), and still want to move funds into markets where they arepersona non grata.
Transaction laundering is a massive and growing problem.[79] Finextra estimated that transaction laundering accounted for over $200 billion in the US in 2017 alone, with over $6 billion of these sales involving illicit goods or services, sold by nearly 335,000 unregistered merchants.[80] Money laundering can erodedemocracy.[81][82]
BNP Paribas, in June 2014, pleaded guilty to falsifyingbusiness records andconspiracy, having violatedU.S. sanctions against Cuba, Iran, and Sudan. It agreed to pay an $8.9 billion fine, the largest ever for violating U.S. sanctions.[11][85]
BSI Bank, in May 2017, was shut down by theMonetary Authority of Singapore for serious breaches of anti-money laundering requirements, poor management oversight of the bank's operations, and gross misconduct of some of the bank's staff.[86]
BTA Bank: $6 billion of bank funds embezzled or fraudulently loaned to shell companies and offshore holdings by the bank's former chairman and CEOMukhtar Ablyazov.[87]
Charter House Bank: Charter House Bank in Kenya was placed under statutory management in 2006 by theCentral Bank of Kenya after it was discovered the bank was being used for money laundering activities by multiple accounts containing missing customer information. More than $1.5 billion had been laundered before the scam was uncovered.[88]
Danske Bank +Swedbank: $30 billion – $230 billion US dollarslaundered through its Estonian branch.[89][90][91] This was revealed on 19 September 2018.[92] Investigations by Denmark, Estonia, the U.K. and the U.S. were joined by France in February 2019. On 19 February 2019, Danske Bank announced that it would cease operating in Russia and the Baltic States.[93][94] This statement came shortly after Estonia's banking regulator Finantsinspektsioon[95] announced that they would close the Estonian branch of Danske Bank.[96] The investigation has grown to include Swedbank, which may have laundered $4.3 billion.[97][98] More atDanske Bank money laundering scandal.
Deutsche Bank was accused in a vast money laundering scheme, dubbed theGlobal Laundromat, involving secret Russian accounts that were transferred fromEuropean Union banks inEstonia,Latvia andCyprus between 2010 and 2014. Newspaper sources estimated the total value of laundered currency to be as high as $80bn. The bank is also under investigation for its involvement in Europe's biggest banking scandal through Denmark'sDanske Bank, which laundered €200bn, also from Russian sources.[99]
United Arab Emirates'Dubai Islamic Bank was accused of "knowingly and purposefully" providing "financial services and other forms of material support toal-Qaeda operatives" when the terrorist group was planning the execution of the11 September attacks against the United States.[100] In addition, theSharjah branch ofStandard Chartered Bank was also involved in opening the accounts of the terror operatives and allowing financial transactions to take place between them andKhalid Sheikh Mohammed, "the principal architect of the 9/11 attacks".[101]
FinCEN Files: On 21 September 2020, TheInternational Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) revealed FinCEN Files, about the involvement of about $2tn of transactions by some of the world's biggest banks.[102] FinCEN files also revealed that Dubai-based Gunes General Trading, based in Dubai funneled Iranian state money via UAE's central banking system and processed $142 million in 2011 and 2012.[103]
HSBC, in December 2012, paid a record $1.9 Billion fine for money-laundering hundreds of millions of dollars for drug traffickers, terrorists and sanctioned governments such as Iran.[108] The money-laundering occurred throughout the 2000s.
Institute for the Works of Religion: Italian authorities investigated suspected money laundering transactions amounting to US$218 million made by theIOR to several Italian banks.[109]
Nauru: US$70 billion of Russian capital flight was laundered through unregulated Nauru offshore shell banks, the late 1990s[113]
Sani Abacha: US$2–5 billion of government assets laundered through banks in the UK, Luxembourg, Jersey (Channel Islands), and Switzerland, by the president of Nigeria.[114]
Standard Bank: Standard Bank South Africa London Branch – The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has fined Standard Bank PLC (Standard Bank) £7,640,400 for failings relating to its anti-money laundering (AML) policies and procedures over corporate and private bank customers connected topolitically exposed persons (PEPs).[115]
Standard Chartered: paid $330 million in fines for money-laundering hundreds of billions of dollars for Iran. The money-laundering took place in the 2000s and occurred for "nearly a decade to hide 60,000 transactions worth $250 billion".[116]
Westpac: On 24 September 2020, Westpac and AUSTRAC agreed to an AUD $1.3 billion penalty over Westpac's breaches of the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 - the largest fine ever issued in Australian corporate history.[117]
Jose Franklin Jurado-Rodriguez, aHarvard University andColumbia University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Economics Department alumnus, was convicted in Luxembourg in June 1990 "in what was one of the largest drug money laundering cases ever brought in Europe"[118] and the US in 1996 of money laundering for theCali Cartel kingpinJose Santacruz Londono.[119] Jurado-Rodriguez specialized in "smurfing".[120]
Ng Lap Seng: The Chinese billionaire real estate developer fromMacau was sentenced to four years in prison[121] in May 2018 for bribing two diplomats, including the former president of theUnited Nations General Assembly,John William Ashe, to help him build a conference center in Macau for the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC), headed by DirectorYiping Zhou. The corruption case was the worst financial scandal for the United Nations since the abuse of the Iraqioil-for-food program more than 20 years ago. Ng Lap Seng, 69, was convicted in Federal District Court in Manhattan on two counts of violating theForeign Corrupt Practices Act, one count of paying bribes, one count of money laundering, and two counts of conspiracy.
Ferdinand Marcos: Unknown amount, estimated at US$10 billion of government assets laundered through banks and financial institutions in the United States, Liechtenstein, Austria, Panama, Netherlands Antilles, Cayman Islands,Vanuatu,Hong Kong, Singapore, Monaco, the Bahamas, the Vatican and Switzerland.[122]
Australia: Introduced the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act (AML/CTF Act) to regulate financial transactions and enhance transparency.
United Kingdom: Implemented the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA) to establish money laundering offenses and facilitate asset recovery.
United States: Enacted the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA) requiring companies to disclose their beneficial owners to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), effectively banning anonymous shell corporations and enhancing transparency in corporate ownership.
Singapore: Established the Corruption, Drug Trafficking and Other Serious Crimes (Confiscation of Benefits) Act to confiscate proceeds from serious crimes.
Switzerland: Strengthened its anti-money laundering framework through the Swiss Anti-Money Laundering Act (AMLA), which mandates due diligence and reporting requirements for financial institutions.
Below table shows the annual reported money laundering cases per 100,000 population for individual countries for the last available year according to theUnited Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.[123] Proportion of unreported money laundering and definition of money laundering might differ between countries.
^National Drug Intelligence Center (August 2011)."National Drug Threat Assessment"(PDF). p. 40.Archived(PDF) from the original on 6 October 2011. Retrieved20 September 2011.
^Naheem, Mohammed Ahmad (5 October 2015). "Trade based money laundering: towards a working definition for the banking sector".Journal of Money Laundering Control.18 (4):513–524.doi:10.1108/JMLC-01-2015-0002.ISSN1368-5201.
^Larkin, Charles; Pearce, Nick; Shannon, Nadine (2022). "Criminality and cryptocurrencies: Enforcement and policy responses – Part II". In Corbet, Shaen (ed.).Understanding Cryptocurrency Fraud. The challenges and headwinds to regulate digital currencies. Boston/Berlin: De Gruyter. pp. 141 f.ISBN978-3-11-071688-7.
^Cf.Kethineni, Sesha; Cao, Ying (2020). "The Rise in Popularity of Cryptocurrency and Associated Criminal Activity".International Criminal Justice Review.30 (3): 334.doi:10.1177/1057567719827051.S2CID150755683.
^Hou, Greg (2022). "Cryptocurrency money laundering and exit scams: Cases, regulatory responses and issue". In Corbet, Shaen (ed.).Understanding Cryptocurrency Fraud. The challenges and headwinds to regulate digital currencies. Boston/Berlin: De Gruyter. p. 88.ISBN978-3-11-071688-7.
^Owen, Allison; Chase, Isabella (2 December 2021).NFTs: A New Frontier for Money Laundering? (Report). Royal United Services Institute.Archived from the original on 16 January 2022. Retrieved12 January 2023.
^For example, under UK law the first offences created for money laundering both related to the proceeds from the sale of illegal narcotics under the Criminal Justice Act 1988 and then later under the Drug Trafficking Act 1994.
^Walker, Christopher; Aten, Melissa (2018). "The Rise of Kleptocracy: A Challenge For Democracy".Journal of Democracy.29 (1):20–24.doi:10.1353/jod.2018.0001.ISSN1086-3214.
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