Yearly, billions of euros are being laundered through the Dutch financial system.
But what is money laundering exactly?
If someone illegally makes money, for example through drug trafficking...
child pornography, or fraud, they want to be able to spend this money without problems.
For example, they want to buy a house, an expensive watch, or a car.
Therefore, it should appear as if this money was earned in a legal manner.
Giving the illegal money an apparent legal status is money laundering.
An activity punishable by the Dutch penal code.
The process of money laundering consists of three stages:
Placement, Layering, Integration.
This process looks like the following.
Placement is the stage in which...
illegal money enters the legal financial system for the first time.
For example, a criminal may deposit his illegally earned money...
in different, Dutch or foreign bank accounts.
These are bank accounts of different private individuals and companies.
After the illegal money enters the financial system...
the criminal will want to conceal the origin of the money.
This is called layering.
For example, a criminal can set up a complex system of legal persons and bank accounts...
to transfer the money back and forth across the globe.
Now that the illegal origin of the money is difficult to trace...
the criminal needs to seemingly give it a legal origin.
After this, the money can be spend in the legal economy, which is called integration.
For example, the criminal can use a false paper trail of invoices or loans...
to explain his assets.
The laundered proceeds of the crime can then be used to, for example...
invest in real estate, buy cars or other luxury items such as watches or art.
Money laundering has a devastating impact on society.
It leads to criminals being able to use their illegal proceeds in the legal world...
and to criminals being able to finance their illegal activities through the legal financial system.
As such, it contributes to maintaining crime within the Netherlands.
Therefore, it is of the utmost importance to combat and prevent money laundering.
Not just because of its impact on society...
but also because crime should not pay off.
FIU-the Netherlands. The power of financial intelligence.