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What is Money Laundering?

Money laundering is the term commonly used to refer to the process by which criminals try to disguise the origin of the proceeds of their crimes, i.e. criminal property.

The Gibraltar Financial Intelligence Unit (GFIU), established in January 1996, handles the receipt, analysis and dissemination of suspicious transactions or activity report (STRs/SARs) under the Drug Trafficking Act 1995, Terrorism Act 2018, Gambling Act 2005, and Proceeds of Crime Act 2015.

The Proceeds of Crimes Act 2015 defines “money laundering” as:

 

doing any act which constitutes an offence under section 2, 3 or 4 (see Principal Money Laundering Offences);

doing any act which constitutes an offence under section 35, 36, 37 or 39 of the Terrorism Act 2018;

doing any act which constitutes an offence under any other enactment that applies in Gibraltar and that offence relates to terrorism or the financing of terrorism, or in the case of an act done otherwise than in Gibraltar, would constitute such an offence if done in Gibraltar.

The money laundering process typically has 3 distinct stages:

  • 1. The placement stage

    Criminal property is placed into the financial system. This stage often involves the deposit of substantial cash sums across the counters of banks and other financial institutions.

  • 2. The layering stage

    The deposited cash is dispersed through a variety of different means in an attempt to conceal the criminal property.

  • 3. The integration stage

    The above two stages have been successful and the cycle is completed, with the criminal property returned to the financial system as legitimate property.

Have You Been A Victim Of Fraud?

The GFIU is not a crime reporting agency and any reports of other crimes, e.g. fraud are to be reported to the Royal Gibraltar Police.