Criminal Money Laundering - Attorney for Money Laundering

Money laundering. What can be done?

Your defense against allegations of legalization will be based on proving the absence of evidence of the crime and/or proving your innocence with regard to the committed crime.

Not every way of disposition of property is considered legalization. The OBJECTIVE is important!

Article 174.1 Legalization (laundering) of money or other property acquired by a person as a result of his/her commission of a crime appeared in the RF Criminal Code in 2002, with the adoption of the Federal Law No115 On Combating Legalization (Laundering) of Proceeds from Crime and Financing of Terrorism. From that point on, the criminal law divided liability for the legalization (laundering) with respect to the subject of the original crime: Article 174 provides for liability for the laundering of proceeds unlawfully obtained by others and Article 174.1for the laundering of one’s own criminal proceeds of the person.

However, if these two rules are to be compared, then under the previously existing criminal law, against all logic, the money laundering was understood to mean completely different actions. That is to say, the disposition of Article 174 of the RF Criminal Code reproduced a refined definition of legalization from Law No115-FZ, indicating a fundamental component of this act that is the objective of imparting a legally acceptable form to ownership, use and disposal of the criminally derived property. It is this integral element of legalization that is established in the legislation of many foreign countries (Germany, Switzerland, and others). In Article 174.1 earlier the special objective as a special element was absent, and as punishable actions were considered not only the financial operations and transactions with criminally acquired property, but also its use in business and other economic activities. Meanwhile, the disposal of the acquired property is a component of the lucrative objective of action (such is the case with most committed crimes, as a result of which proceeds are derived). Therefore, the disposal of criminally derived property does not require additional classification as legalization.

In connection with the amendments made to the RF Criminal Code, in connection with the adoption of the Law No60-FZ of 07.04.2010, imparting a legally acceptable form to ownership, use and disposal of such monetary or other assets, as an objective of legalization is now indicated in the dispositions and Article 174 and Article 174.1 of the RF Criminal Code.

What property is the target of crime?

The target of money laundering is represented by monetary assets or other property deliberately acquired by criminal means.
Proceeds received by criminal means, according to Article 3 of Federal Law No115 are monetary assets or other property received as a result of commission of crime.

The criminal means consists in the fact that the property has been acquired through the commission of various crimes. Criminal law restricts the circle of these crimes, excluding from them the offenses provided for in Articles 193, 194, 198, 199, 199.1, 199.2 of the RF Criminal Code.

Proceeds are understood to mean any economic benefit resulting from the offense.

Monetary assets are a payment means; payments may be made through cash and non-cash settlements.
An operation with monetary assets or other assets shall be subject to mandatory monitoring, in case if at least one of the parties is a company or an individual against whom in accordance with the procedure established by the Federal Law there have been obtained data about their involvement in extremist activities or terrorism, or legal person directly or indirectly owned or controlled by such a company or individual, or a natural or legal person acting on behalf or at the direction of such a company or individual.

Article 6 of the Federal Law No115 of August 7, 2001 defines the types of operations that require mandatory monitoring.

Court practice

Judicial practice in the application of criminal law develops differently, due to the fact that there is no clear explanation from the highest judicial instance. However, a formal approach to classification based on a literal interpretation of the rules and the desire to improve the performance of the preliminary investigation lead to the fact that Article 174.1 of the RF Criminal Code is imputed by cumulation redundantly.

True to fact, even the courts do not always admit such a circumstance as the objective of use of monetary assets obtained by criminal means. As a rule, they agree with the classification of actions of the defendants under Article 174.1 of the RF Criminal Code when the facts of embezzlements on a large scale have been proven.

In most cases, laundering of money or other property that is acquired by a person as a result of a different crime is imputed to him/her by cumulation with this predicate (primary) crime. Among these the most common are: theft (Article 158), swindling (Article 159), embezzlement or squandering (Article 160), illegal receipt of credits (Article 176), sale of narcotic or psychotropic substances (Article 228.1).

The so called real legalization in swindling with credits or with illegal receipt of credits, money, as a rule, represents a series of sequentially performed financial transactions, that are united by a single intent and aimed at achieving one objective that is to whitewash the proceeds from a particular criminal manipulation.

Quite often, in many criminal cases under Article 174 and Article 174.1 of the RF Criminal Code materials of criminal cases do not contain evidence of commission of financial operations and other transactions by the accused (defendant) with exactly those funds that have been received as a result of the crime.