Anti-Money Laundering and the Wolfsberg Principles

Abstract

Money laundering, the process of disguising the criminal origin of funds and reinserting them into the legal economy, is an indispensable component of most, if not all, criminal activities and has therefore been known for centuries. Its dimensions, however, changed with the advent of globalization: increasing international flows of legal goods and capital offer increasing hiding space for illegal goods and capital (Reinicke 1998: 135–7). Recognition of money laundering as a transnational problem in need of regulation, also, is relatively recent (Pieth and Aiolfi 2004: 3).