Assignment on White Collar Crime in Australia

Running head: WHITE COLLAR CRIME IN AUSTRALIA
WHITE COLLAR CRIME IN AUSTRALIA
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

WHITE COLLAR CRIME IN AUSTRALIA1
Introduction
The term white-collar crime is considered to refer to the financially motivated and along
with such non-violent crime, which would help in covering a broad range of the criminal
conduct. These would also occur through the course of the offender’s business or any profession.
The crime that is considered to typically involve stealing of money from a certain organization
and through the individuals who are considered to hold important or significant positions in that
organization. In the typical sense, white-collar crimes are considered to be committed by the
citizens who have a higher social class and the blue-collar crimes are considered to be committed
by the individuals who are from a lower social class1. Therefore, it can be understood that the
crime which are considered to be committed by the salaried professionals or the workers in any
business. These crimes are committed in order to gain certain financial benefit from the theft or
through fraud which are through security dealings. Money Laundering is considered to be a
critical risk as it is the common denominator for almost all kinds of serious and organized
criminal activity. This involves the processing of various illicit or illegal profits in certain ways
which would help in masking the ownership and try to assist in making the funds appear from
some kind of legitimate sources. It is the process or the procedure through which large amounts
of money are considered to be generated through criminal activities, which are inclusive of drug
trafficking or funding of terrorist groups, and process them in some way which would help them
appear to come from a certain kind of legitimate source. Therefore, the money is considered to
be dirty and the process would launder the money in order to make it look clean2.
This particular paper discusses crimes regarding money laundering as a white-collar
crime. It would also compare the legislative framework of Australia regarding money laundering
with the legislative framework of the United States. In addition to such it would discuss and
critically assess the regulatory bodies in Australia with other jurisdiction. Furthermore, it would
also discuss the drawbacks as well as the benefits of the current Australian framework. It would
further discuss the theories of the criminal conduct as well as the theories of punishment, which
would help in ascertaining the effectiveness of the current legislative framework. In conclusion,
it would provide with recommendations that can be adopted by the Australian legal system in
order to improve the anti-money laundering regulations and in addition to such it would
summarize the points that have been dealt with in the paper.
1 Savage, David, et al. "Detection of Money Laundering Groups: Supervised Learning on Small
Networks." Workshops at the Thirty-First AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence. 2017.
2 Chaikin, David. "A Critical Analysis of the Effectiveness of Anti-Money Laundering Measures with Reference to
Australia." The Palgrave Handbook of Criminal and Terrorism Financing Law. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, 2018.
293-316.

WHITE COLLAR CRIME IN AUSTRALIA2
Discussion
Money-laundering as a white-collar crime
Money laundering is considered to be the illegal or illicit process which conceals the
origins of the money that has been acquired or obtained illegally by passing such through a
certain complex sequence regarding banking transfers for some kind of commercial transactions.
The laws or the regulations were considered to be created against organized crime during the
period of the Prohibition in the United States, which was during the year of 1930s. These
organized crimes received a certain kind of major boost from that of the Prohibition to the large
source of law, which was relating to new funds that had been acquired or obtained from the illicit
and illegal sales of liquor. There was a successful prosecution on tax evasion of Al Capone and
such had brought a new emphasis by the law enforcement agencies as well as the states in order
to confiscate the money. However, the laws that were prevailing during that time could not hold
the gangsters liable or responsible as they had begun to pay taxes. In the year of 1980 the war on
the drugs were considered to lead the government again and again to convert the money into
various laundering rules which would help in attempting to track and along with such seize the
proceeds for the drug crimes so as to catch the organizers along with the individuals for running
the drug empires. It was considered to have a certain kind of benefit for the law enforcement
perspective as such were for turning the rules of evidence. The law enforcers were considered to
prove a certain individual to be guilty and try to seize the property of such individual.
Nevertheless, with all the money laundering regulations the money could not be confiscated and
therefore such was up to the individual in order to prove that the source regarding the funds for
the money was considered to be legitimate and legal in order to get such money back. Therefore,
this would make it easier for the law enforcement to provide with much lower standards for the
onus of proof. However, it can be understood that such a process was considered to have been
abused by various law enforcement agencies in order to keep the money without any kind of
strong evidence which had related to such criminal activity and such were considered to be used
in order to supplement their own budgets3.
Comparisons of the legislative framework of United States and Australia for
Money-laundering
Money laundering is considered to be a major challenge as well as a difficulty in the
United States. The principle source of the various laundered funds are considered to come from
the receptiveness or accessibility of the financial system. In addition to such there are trade-
based money laundering which is also considered to be another process or method through which
the criminals are considered to launder the funds in the country. There are huge amounts of
money that are laundered each year and these are generated through the international banks as
well as the financial institutions. The USA Patriot Act4, which had been enforced in the year
3 Pol, Ronald F. "Anti-money laundering effectiveness: assessing outcomes or ticking boxes?." Journal of Money
Laundering Control (2018).
4 USA Patriot Act, 2001.

WHITE COLLAR CRIME IN AUSTRALIA3
2001, is considered to amend the Bank Secrecy Act5 BSA which would help in requiring all the
financial institutions in order to establish the Anti-Money Laundering programs. The Act is also
considered to be intended in order to strengthen the measures that are used by the country to
prevent or to detect and along with such prosecute the money-laundering and along with such the
financing relating to terrorism6.
The United States also requires the reports of any suspicious activities through the SARs
in order to be filed at any point of time for any suspicious transaction to that of the Financial
Crimes Enforcement Network. The financial institutions of the USA are considered to require or
follow certain strict customer identification programs that would help in verifying the true and
real identity of every customer in order to prevent them from money laundering. The economy of
USA according to the recent trends are considered to be suffering which is causing the Congress
to issue a certain kind of an issue which would be considered to be an economic stimulus plan
that would help in preventing the whole nation to fall into recession. In spite of all these
difficulties, they are considered to consist of one of the world’s largest as well as dominant
technologically economy. The Federal Reserve is considered to be the Central Bank of the USA
and it maintains the monetary policy as well as ensures the safety of the banking and the
financial systems7.
The Anti-money laundering regulations as well as the laws are considered to target
various criminal activities which are inclusive of all the market manipulation as well as trade in
several illicit goods and commodities. It also tries to target corruption which are prevailing in the
public funds and along with such the tax evasion as these are considered to be the methods in
which the crimes are tried to be concealed due to the money that are derived from them. The
Anti-money laundering policies are considered to be required typically by various entities in
order to complete the financial transactions in order to keep through the records of the clients
who are involved in such activities so that the government can commence further investigations
for any suspicious illicit activities. There are three stages through which the money is laundered
and such involves placement, layering and along with such the integration. Therefore, it is
considered to be a movement of the cash from the source so that the source can be
misrepresented or disguised in a manner which would be easy. The Anti-money Laundering and
Counter-terrorism Financing Act 2006 (Cth)8 is considered to be the primary piece of legislation
that would help in respect with the prevention of money laundering. In addition to such, it would
also detect money laundering as well as terrorism financing. These are the sanctioned regulations
and the laws that are considered to work with the AML legislative framework of Australia9.
These are considered to comprise of certain laws and regulations along with certain procedures
5 Bank Secrecy Act 1970.
6 Harvey, Anne Imobersteg. "Australian aml/ctf Legislation in the International Context." Anti-money Laundering
and Counter-terrorism Financing Law and Policy. Brill Nijhoff, 2019. 14-57.
7 Unger, Brigitte, Joras Ferwerda, and B. Unger. "Money Laundering and Tax Fraud." (2018).
8 Anti-money Laundering and Counter-terrorism Financing Act 2006 (Cth).
9 Unger, Brigitte, Joras Ferwerda, and B. Unger. "Money Laundering and Tax Fraud." (2018).