Money laundering has always been a controversial issue; but what do we really know about the concept of money laundering?

Most countries agree to the definition adopted by the United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances of 1988 and the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime of 2000 that money laundering is the:

Conversion or transfer of property, knowing that such property is derived from any [drug trafficking] offence or offences (& ) for the purpose of concealing or disguising the illicit origin of the property (& ); The concealment or disguise of the true nature, source, location, disposition, movement, rights with respect to, or ownership of property knowing that such property is derived from [drug trafficking offences]; and The acquisition, possession, or use of property, knowing that at that time of receipt, such property was derived from [drug trafficking].

Nonetheless, these definitions refers only to the laundering of money gained from drug trafficking. As a consequence, crimes that are not related to drug trafficking such as dealing of illegal arms, or theft, do not constitute money laundering offences under the Conventions. Thus, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and other international bodies extended the Conventions' definition to include other grave crimes such as gunrunning, fraud, murder for hire, and terrorist activities.

In simplest and broadest terms therefore, we can say that money laundering is the manipulation of cash or property in order to hide its true source. The only problem with this definition though is that it will encompass activities that entail no criminal conduct such as when a firm decides not to disclose information about its income from its competitors in order to maintain its competitive advantage, or to discourage solicitations.

Accordingly, for a money laundering activity to become criminal in nature, it must be practiced with the intention of misleading the authorities as to the illicit nature of a property or money. This will therefore include all activities that disguise the nature or origin of, or entitlement to funds or property derived from criminal activities, with the aim of making these illegally acquired funds appear to be legitimate.

These money laundering activities proliferate worldwide because criminals regard them as the only way they can possess large amounts of money without the fear of being detected. Through money laundering, they can expand, enrich themselves, further finance their criminal activities, and most importantly, gain power to weaken the social fabric, control the institutions of the financial system, and undermine other institutions of a democratic country. And as long as money laundering countermeasures are not firmly established within a country, they will always resort to laundering money in order to expand their criminal businesses.