Money laundering is the process by which illegitimate or criminally derived money is made to appear legitimate. This result is achieved by a series of financial transactions designed to conceal the identity, source and/or destination of the criminally derived money. This process uses legal channels to funnel illegal funds in order to conceal their criminal origins.
Money laundering generally involves three independent but sometimes simultaneous steps:
1 Placement: The physical placement or insertion of illegal money into the legitimate financial system
2 Layering: Separating the proceeds of criminal activity from their true origins by putting them through several layers of complex financial transactions.
3 Integration: This is the final stage where the criminal proceeds re-enter the legitimate economy clothed with what appears to be a legitimate source.
The activities carried out at all stages of this process are criminalized under Bermuda laws by virtue of sections 43 – 45 of the Proceeds of Crime Act 1997 and section 8 of the Anti-Terrorism (Financial and other Measures) Act 2004. Sections 32, 33 and 230 of the Criminal Code also criminalise any attempt, conspiracy or incitement to commit any such offence.
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