Money Laundering: An Overview

Money laundering is generally regarded as the practice of engaging in financial transactions to conceal the identity, source, and/or destination of illegally gained money by which the proceeds of crime are converted into assets which appear to have a legitimate origin. In other words, Money Laundering refers to the conversion or "Laundering" of money which is illegally obtained, so as to make it appear to originate from a legitimate source. The recent activity in money laundering in India is through political parties’ corporate companies and share market. Bank fraud is a serious financial crime that involves the unlawful obtainment of funds from a bank or other financial institution. Money is the root cause of many evils like corruption, black marketing, smuggling, drug trafficking, tax evasion, and the buck does not stop here. While carrying out the Know your Client (KYC) norms, special care has to be exercised to ensure that the contracts are not anonymous or under fictitious names. Money is the prime reason for engaging in almost any type of criminal activity .Money laundering is the method by which criminals disguise the illegal origins of their wealth. GEL Classification Code: E49; E50; P44