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Money Laundering in the Asia Pacific Working Paper No. 2: Asia Pacific money laundering flows and trends

International Centre for Criminal Law Reform and Criminal Justice Policy March, 1999

Allan Castle, Ph.D.

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Contents Introduction Defining money laundering
Placement Layering Integration

Regional Scope Background: the transnationalisation of crime and money laundering The amount and sources of money laundered in the Asia Pacific
How much money is being laundered? - Estimating the scale of money laundering in the Asia Pacific - The ‘2 percent’ rule What are the sources of laundered money in the Asia Pacific? - FATF/APG ‘typologies’ exercise report on sources of laundered money - Illicit drugs - Prostitution - Corruption - Smuggling - Fraud - Tax evasion - Organised crime in the former Soviet Union (FSU) as a source of laundered money

Methods of laundering money in the Asia Pacific
FATF-APG laundering typologies

- FSU laundering methods - Casinos and internet gambling - Offshore financial centres
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Movement of proceeds (layering or structuring) Underground banking Other methods

Conclusions
The sources of laundered money The routes of laundered money

Further reference

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Introduction
The first report in this series emphasised the need for concerted action against money laundering in the Asia Pacific, presenting an analysis of the opportunities and obstacles likely to be encountered in any attempt to construct a realistic and effective anti-money laundering regime in the region. This report1 provides further background regarding the nature of the problem by providing an overview of the most significant sources and routes of laundered money in the region.