Being accused of any crime can feel like a ton of rocks being dropped on top of you. Whether there’s truth to the accusations or not, it’s something that you should be proactive about when it comes to seeking legal support. After all, every individual is deserving of fair legal advice, support and trial, should it be taken to court.
But what is money laundering? What responsibilities do you have as a business or sole trader? And how can our fraud solicitors help when you’re found in a situation like this? In this guide, we’ll explain all that and more so that you’re knowledgeable about this type of fraud and how to navigate such accusations should you be unfortunate enough to face it.
Money laundering is the process of illegally concealing the origin of money that may have otherwise been obtained from illicit activities.
Many refer to this as being ‘dirty money’ and money laundering, which helps to clean the money – hence the word ‘laundering’.
Dirty money can be made through a variety of different methods. These include corruption, embezzlement, drug trafficking and sex work, to name but a few. Money laundering is illegal and therefore a financial crime, which can lead to convictions if found guilty.
Money laundering has become somewhat of an economic, prominent political, and legal debate. Most countries will implement some sort of anti-money-laundering measures, so this is something that’s avoided at all costs.
With that being said, finding yourself in a situation where you’re laundering money is not usually something you accidentally do.
As a business or sole trader, it’s important that you’re adhering to all of the legal responsibilities that come with handling money and transactions correctly.
You should be meeting certain day-to-day responsibilities if your business is covered by Money Laundering Regulations.
This means carrying out customer due diligence measures to ensure your customers are who they say they are and risk assessing your business. Putting in place internal controls and monitoring systems is essential to making sure you conduct yourself properly as a company or sole trader.
The controls you put in place will depend on the size and complexity of the business. This might be the number of customers you have, to the type of products and services you provide.
When it comes to transactions, you should be carrying out customer due diligence measures when your business is carrying out occasional transactions. Enhanced due diligence might need to be applied in situations where:
What should be expected when it comes to money laundering and being accused of such? The investigatory process is important to be knowledgeable about, should you find yourself in an unfortunate situation now or in the future.
Investigations usually begin when something is flagged on an account. This can often occur as a result of an internal review or an automated monitoring system. It may even be someone noticing suspicious customer behaviour that’s happened on a given account.
Once the alert has been flagged, an internal analyst will review whether the red flag triggered needs to be pursued. If the alert is valid, that’s when the investigation enters the next stage.
Once the alert has been validated, it then gets passed onto an investigator who will review the alert and dive deeper into what’s gone on. Information is then gathered at this point, either provided by the business or individuals who’ve spotted the problem to begin with.
Next comes the breakdown of transactions, and to effectively find where money laundering has occurred, through unusual behaviours or patterns. Investigators will look at where the source of money has come from and whether that points to potential laundering.
As such, if there is evidence that money laundering has taken place, further action will be taken, which will likely lead to arrests and convictions.
Any company or individual that wants to challenge money laundering allegations has to ensure no stone is left unturned when trying to prove the allegations or evidence wrong.
That’s why it’s important to have legal representation, especially when it comes to fraud solicitors who are specialists in this type of fraud in particular.
Seeking out all the evidence is imperative, especially when it comes to proving the allegations wrong or building a defence strategy from the evidence discovered.
Our solicitors will help to find all of that evidence and assist you in gathering the necessary transactions and details required so that it can be presented as a challenge. Applying full disclosure to all the material that’s been obtained by investigating authorities is necessary, regardless of whether or not they intend to submit the evidence in court.
In many money laundering cases, our solicitors use all the relevant expertise and experience to make these allegations appear less credible than the investigation team responsible for the accusations.
When it comes to the authorities responsible for convicting you or someone else accused of money laundering, they’re after information or material that will boost their efforts in securing a conviction. As such, the efforts of these investigatory agencies often become clouded due to sheer determination. This then leads them to miss key details that disprove the allegations.
That’s why fraud lawyers are important to have, because conducting an internal investigation can help as a first step when any accusations of money laundering are being made.
Here at ABV Solicitors, our aim is to defend your rights and protect your interests. When it comes to fraud cases such as money laundering, we have the expertise and knowledge to help navigate these allegations and to ultimately find cracks in the accusations made.
We make sure to seek out all the facts and give you the best chance of overturning such allegations or seeking the best deal possible.
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