Money Laundering Fraud and Crime in the United Kingdom

Name 1
Student’s Name
Affiliation
Instructor
Date
LLM Dissertation Study Development Template.
What is the main topic of your study? What interests you about it? Do you think you have
a view on the likely answer that your study will reach? Try to answer questions above in
one paragraph. This may help you to develop the specifics of your question. It may also help
you to develop a hypothesis (an answer that you will seek to undermine). And it may help
you to work out the key aim and then any subsidiary aims of your study. This may include an
aim about how you will use the findings to improve or change something, particularly
important for policy or legal reform.
The main topic for this study is “Money laundering fraud and crime in the United Kingdom”.
This is an interesting topic because it puts into perspective what money laundering is, how it is
done as well as shedding light on the laws and regulations used to curb it. Being a high level
and organized type of crime, a lot of resources are used in identifying money launders. This
becomes an expensive venture.1 On the other hand, money laundering and fraud crime have
been linked to acts of financing terrorism as well as international sanctions being evaded by
the perpetrators. Studying about this topic will, therefore, bring to light the aspects
1 Levi, M. (2016). The phantom capitalists: The organization and control of long-firm fraud Routledge. 23

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mentioned herein. As such, this study will provide essential answers to the topic hence
satisfying the needs of the study.
What is your research question/specific nature of your inquiry? This is often better
phrased as a research question rather than a statement and if possible, it should be
subdivided into key sub-questions so that you can link your data/material and method(s) to
the sub-questions. Usually, your early sub-questions get answered during your literature
review, so you will then need to revise your sub-questions once you have completed your
background literature review. It is unlikely at this stage that you will have your sub-
questions, but if you do then you can add them too.
Main question: What is the prevalence of money laundering Fraud and Crime in the United
Kingdom?
Sub-questions:
 1) To what Extend does money laundering fraud and crime exist in the
country?
 2) Are there laws and regulations that address the problem? How
effective are they?
 3) How has technology contributed to the existence of this problem?
 4) what are the impacts of money laundering fraud on the economy?
What are the main pieces of legislation and recent case law that underpin your research?

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The legislation in existence at the moment include the “Money Laundering, Terrorists Financing
and Transfer of Funds Regulations 2017”, Sanctions and Anti-money Laundering Act 2018, The
Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (as amended by the Crime and Courts Act 2013 and the Serious Crime
Act 2015), The Terrorism Act 2000 (as an amendment by the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security
Act 2001, the Terrorism Act 2000 and the Terrorism Act 2006 and Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (as
an Amendment) Regulations 2007) and the Money Laundering Regulations 2007 (SI 2007 No.
2157)2
Recent Case laws include Abou-Rahmah and others v Abacha and others [2006] EWCA Civ 1492,
Akhtar, Amir (R v Urfan Akhtar : R v Abida Shaheen Amir), Ali,Hussain, Khan, Bhatti (R v Liaquat
Ali, Akhtar Hussain and Mohsin Khan Shahid Bhatti) [2005] EWCA Crim 87, Attorney-General of
Zambia v Meer Care & Desai [2008] EWCA Civ 875 and Bank of Scotland v A Limited [2001] EWCA
Civ 52
What keywords did you use to research and why?
2 Harrison, K., & Ryder, N. (2016). The law relating to financial crime in the United Kingdom. Routledge. Pages
12-41