Money laundering basically means bringing amounts of money from crime into the legal economy.
Fighting this phenomenon is an international issue, meaning that there are several conventions on it.
On the other hand, Romania has in place both mechanisms to avoid this and a criminal incrimination of it.
What Actions Are Incriminated
According to art. 269 Criminal Code, money laundering can mean:
• the exchange or transfer of goods, knowing that they come from the commission of crimes, in order to hide or disguise the illicit origin of these goods or to help the person who committed the crime from which the goods come to evade prosecution, judgment or execution punishment;
• concealing or disguising the true nature, provenance, location, disposition, circulation, or ownership of the goods or the rights over them, knowing that the goods come from the commission of crimes;
• acquiring, possessing, or using goods knowing that they come from the commission of crimes.
In short, the actions incriminated are those that tend to bring the proceeds of crimes into a legal circuit.
Criminal Penalty for Money Laundering
The Romanian Criminal Code provides for a prison sentence of 3 to 12 years for this crime.
In case of a conviction, the penalty applied will be individualized depending on the actual method of participation, but also on other elements.
Money Laundering and Other Crimes
Although incriminated as an individual crime, money laundering is often related to another crime.
An example of this is the crime of tax evasion when someone uses the proceeds of evasion in the legal economy.
On the other hand, tax evasion is not the only crime alongside which we encounter money laundering. Practically, if a value comes from a crime, any concealment of this origin may constitute money laundering.
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