What does money laundering mean?
Reporting on the Howstuffwork website, money laundering is the act of making money from Source A looks like it came from Source B.
In practice, the perpetrators try to disguise the origin of the money obtained through illegal activities so that it looks like it was obtained from legal sources. If not, they cannot use the money because it will link them to criminal activities and will be confiscated by law enforcement officials.
Another explanation regarding the effect of money laundering and crime of money laundering is defined by the world business law experts,, in his book entitled The Ins and Outs of the Crimes of Money Laundering and Financing Terrorism.
Sutan explained that money laundering is a series of activities which is a process carried out by a person or organization against illicit money, that is money that comes from crime.
The intention is to hide or disguise the origin of the money from the government or the authorities authorized to take action against criminal acts.
The method used is mainly putting the money into the financial system so that the money can then be removed from the financial system as legal money.
There is also a money laundering process that has three stages as follows:
1. Placement. At this stage, the perpetrator inserts the dirty money into a legitimate financial institution. This is often in the form of a bank cash deposit. This is the most terrible stage of the washing process because it involves a large amount of cash that is quite striking and the bank is required to report high-value transactions.
2. Layering. This stage involves sending money through various financial transactions to change its form and make it difficult to follow.
Layering can consist of several bank-to-bank transfers, wire transfers between different accounts under different names in different countries, making deposits and withdrawals to continue to change the amount of money in the account, change currency, and buy high-value goods such as ships, houses , a car, or a diamond to change money.
This is the most complicated step in a money laundering scheme and this is all an effort to make money from the crime difficult to trace its origin and purpose.
3. Integration. Up to this point, money is returning to the mainstream economy in a form that appears legitimate, apparently from legal transactions.
This might involve the last bank transfer to a local business account where the leaching "invests" in exchange for a profit cut, the sale of the cruise ship purchased during the coating stage.
At this point, the perpetrator can use money without getting caught. It is very difficult to catch perpetrators during the integration phase if there is no documentation from the previous stage.
If caught, the perpetrators of money laundering in the world will be charged with Law number 8 of 2010 concerning Prevention and Eradication of Money Laundering, or more popularly called the Law.
Punishment awaits the perpetrator
Article 3 of the Law explains that everyone who places, transfers, transfers, spends, pays, grants, entrusts, brings abroad, changes its form, exchanges with currency or securities or other acts of assets that are known or deserved. is the result of a criminal offense that will be jailed for a maximum of 20 years and a maximum fine of 10 billion.
Meanwhile, article 4 reads, "Anyone who conceals or disguises the origin, source, location, designation, transfer of rights, or the actual ownership of assets he knows or deserves to be a criminal offense will be jailed for a maximum of 20 years. and a maximum fine of 5 billion. "
Those who are "not directly involved" still face severe penalties. Article Law states that the person who receives or controls the placement, transfer, payment, gift, donation, safekeeping, exchange, or use of assets he knows or deserves to be a criminal offense will be jailed for a maximum of 5 years and a maximum fine of 1 billion.