University Dissertation: Money Laundering Fraud and Crime in the UK

This dissertation delves into the pervasive issue of money laundering and its associated crimes within the United Kingdom. The study investigates the methods employed in money laundering, evaluates the effectiveness of existing laws and regulations designed to combat it, and assesses the impact of this illicit activity on the UK's economy. The research employs a quantitative approach, utilizing secondary resources to analyze the prevalence and consequences of money laundering. The dissertation explores the role of technology in both facilitating and combating money laundering, examining how technological advancements have created new vulnerabilities while also enhancing detection capabilities. It also provides a comprehensive overview of the current legal and regulatory frameworks in place to address money laundering, and assesses their effectiveness. The research aims to identify gaps in the existing legal and regulatory structures and propose recommendations for legislative and policy changes to mitigate the risks associated with money laundering. The study also emphasizes the need for international cooperation to effectively combat money laundering, given its global nature and the involvement of various jurisdictions. The dissertation concludes by highlighting the need for ongoing research and monitoring of money laundering trends to adapt to evolving methods and technologies used by criminals.

Running head: DISSERTATION
Dissertation
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Authors Note

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Dissertation
Chapter 1: Introduction
1.0 Overview
Money laundering along with crime is found to have its origin not only in United Kingdom
but also in different parts of the whole world such that no country can claim that it is absolutely
immune from this ill practice.1 The people who are mostly involved in this money laundering
practice are actually government officers who actually commit the act of transferring of the
public money. It shows that obsession of the criminals for cleaning illicit money has outgrown
the legitimate attempts of mitigating the risk of this crime.2 This topic is very important as the
aim behind the crime is to conceal the funds derived by crime by giving it a legitimate
appearance together with retaining control on them. It can be described as the process of
transforming the inputs of illegally earned money into apparently legitimate outputs. In UK, it
has become a serious topic and its prevention has turned to be the key issue with concerns over
potential effects on the country’s economy. Though the approximate estimated costs of money
laundering to the country’s economy ranged from 36 billion pounds to 90 billion pounds as per
NCA 2017: 22 and the costs are considered to be very significant and its prevention is complex
in effort of disrupting the crime. It must be kept in mind that as London is the place of major
finance, UK is found to be proactive in anti-money laundering due to its reputation, global
business confidence and reassurance. Considering the fact that money laundering is a very high
level of crime as it includes not only millions but billions of capital.3 It is on record that money
laundering and fraud are linked with acts of providing money to terrorism and international
sanction which are waived by the perpetrators. This study will thus be used to provide
recommendations to amend various legislations and legal instruments to fight with the crime in
the country.
1 Levi, Michael. "Money for crime and money from crime: Financing crime and laundering crime proceeds."
European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research 2015
2 Levi, Michael. Regulating Fraud (Routledge Revivals): White-Collar Crime and the Criminal Process.
Routledge, 2013.
3 Levi, Michael. The phantom capitalists: The organization and control of long-firm fraud. Routledge, 2016.

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1.1 Scope:
This dissertation will be focussed into the money laundering practice, giving details of
the method by which it is carried out and finally light will be also thrown on various acts and
regulations that have followed in UK to try and fight the crime.4 The scope is made very limited
as by this the study is going to be conducted efficiently.
1.2 Research Aim
1.2.1 Primary aim:
The aim of this research is investigating and analysing the prevalence and the effect of
the money laundering fraud and crime in UK. The purpose behind this study is identifying
whether a systematic approach of crime prevention could develop the present money laundering
methods applicable in UK.
1.2.2 Secondary aim:
The secondary aims of this study are as follows:
 To find the extent of the money laundering fraud and crime existing in the
country,
 To recognize the laws and regulations that redress this crime and their effect on
the control of the crime,5
 To address the technology that had contributed to the existence of the problem,
 To analyse the effect of the money laundering fraud on the country’s economy.
This study will conduct a quantitative study on the above mentioned primary and secondary
aims considering the weightage of the crime not only in this country but also all over the world.
The information collected by the research provides most up to date information on this crime by
addressing the research aims in a broad and detailed way. This crime prevails as a problem for
4 Harrison, Karen, and Nicholas Ryder. The law relating to financial crime in the United Kingdom. Routledge,
2016.
5 Madinger, John. Money laundering: A guide for criminal investigators. CRC Press, 2016.

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which no solution can be foreseen in spite of advances in technology with improved system of
detection in the financial section. Nonetheless, technical as well as technological advancements
have also multiplied the opportunities of exploiting existing vulnerabilities.
1.2.3 Research Questions
The research questions are:
1) what is the prevalence of money laundering Fraud and Crime in the United Kingdom?
2) To what Extent does money laundering fraud and crime exist in the country?
3) Are there laws and regulations that address the problem? How effective are they?
4) How has technology contributed to the existence of this problem?
5) What are the impacts of money laundering fraud on the economy?6
1.3 Rationale of the research:
The rationale of this research is identifying the reason behind the committing of the crime of
money laundering and fraud and to analyse the ways to fight with it and to uproot it eventually
in near future.
The prevention of money laundering throws light on rule based and risk based approaches.
Both of these are concerned with an attempt to prevent illegal cash flow into the legitimate
economy. Over many countries in the world, the financial bodies and non-financial businesses
and professions are needed to apply certain rules to prevent money laundering. This needs
regulated sectors for reporting each financial dealing which is found to be suspicious.7 The
global application of anti-money laundering policies and guidelines is seen to achieve
significant progress in spite of many drawbacks. Anti-money laundering measures form a
6 Unger, Brigitte, et al. The Economic and Legal Effectiveness of the European Union s Anti-Money Laundering
Policy. Edward Elgar Publishing, 2014.
7 Qureshi, Waseem Ahmad. "An Overview of Money Laundering in Pakistan and Worldwide: Causes, Methods,
and Socioeconomic Effects." U. Bologna L. Rev. 2 (2017): 302.

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Dissertation
responsibility on the financial bodies to prohibit and detect any activities connected with money
laundering. Still these measures give a unique type of challenges that have formed substantial
application and continuing financial costs applied by risk analysis and the fear of damage to the
reputation.
1.4 Structure of the research:
The dissertation paper has been divided into mainly five chapters that comprise of
introduction, literature review, research methodology, data analysis, conclusion and
recommendations.
Introduction: This chapter deals with the brief discussion regarding the money laundering
crime and its effect in United Kingdom. In this chapter, the research aims and objectives, the
questions on the basis of which the research is conducted.
Literature review: this particular chapter explains in details about the theoretical discussion
and critical assessment of the methods of prevention of this crime in the country. It also deals
with the processes and methods involved to perform this crime within United Kingdom.8
Research Methodology: this chapter throws light on the approach and different methodologies
utilised to perform the research and the problems in association with the research focussed on
the said crime.9 Moreover, by these methodologies, relevant data has been collected
successfully. In addition, the chapter also gives justification for selecting particular
methodology for conducting the research in a successful manner.
Data Analysis: in this chapter, the data that has been collected by means of data analysing tools
and techniques has been analysed.10
8 Gilmour, Nicholas. "Understanding the practices behind money laundering–A rational choice interpretation."
International Journal of Law, Crime and Justice 44 (2016): 1-13.
9 Unger, Brigitte, and Daan Van der Linde, eds. Research handbook on money laundering. Edward
Elgar Publishing, 2013.
10 Demetis, Dionysios S. "Fighting money laundering with technology: A case study of Bank X in the UK."
Decision Support Systems 105 (2018): 96-107.

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Conclusions and recommendations: Finally, the last chapter deals with seeking the application
of the prevention of money laundering by approaching an experimental approach to identify and
explore the situations and environmental factors that promotes money laundering. Finally,
recommendations are also made to make amendments to the existing laws and acts to combat
this crime of money laundering.11
1.7 Summary:
Thus this chapter can be summarised as money laundering remains to be the
major practice or method through which the public officials entrusted with the duty of
controlling public funds in terms of usage continue to apply to embezzle public funds. Such
an economic crime has cost the government heavily given that a lot of money that is purposed
for public projects ends up in individual offshore bank accounts. This study thus applies
quantitative approach specifically the use of secondary resources to address the manner in
which money laundering is conducted and the various laws that and regulations that UK has
put in place to fight this crime.12 The finding is that money laundering is still prevalent in the
country since the laws in place are not effective enough to curb it hence the need for the
government to adopt a different approach in this matter that is eating into public funds. This
is topic is of great interest as it puts into perspective the practice of money laundering in
terms of what it is, the manner in which it is conducted and at the same time highlighting the
laws and regulations that have been put in place to curb this evil of embezzling public funds
and stashing it in foreign offshore accounts. Given the fact that money laundering is a high
level kind of crime since it involves if not millions then billions of money, a lot of resources
is used in the tracking and identification of money launders a venture that is too costly. It is
also on record that a lot of money laundering and fraud crime is linked to acts of financing
11 Hopton, Doug. Money laundering: a concise guide for all business. Gower, 2016.
12 Betz, Kathrin. Proving Bribery, Fraud and Money Laundering in International Arbitration: On Applicable
Criminal Law and Evidence. Cambridge University Press, 2017.

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terrorism and the international sanctions that are being evaded by the perpetrators the
research on this particular topic will thus bring into perspective the above-mentioned aspects
by all standards. This study is likely to come to the conclusion that money laundering and
crime have become common practice or rather systemic problems in the UK. The findings of
this study will thus be used to recommend the amendments to the various legal instruments
that have been put in place to fight the menace of money laundering crime not only in the UK
but also in the other parts of the world since this is a deep-seated practice that demands for
international attention.

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Bibliography
Betz, Kathrin. Proving Bribery, Fraud and Money Laundering in International Arbitration:
On Applicable Criminal Law and Evidence. Cambridge University Press, 2017
Demetis, Dionysios S. "Fighting money laundering with technology: A case study of Bank X
in the UK." Decision Support Systems 105 (2018): 96-107.
Gilmour, Nicholas. "Understanding the practices behind money laundering–A rational choice
interpretation." International Journal of Law, Crime and Justice 44 (2016): 1-13.
Harrison, Karen, and Nicholas Ryder. The law relating to financial crime in the United
Kingdom. Routledge, 2016
Hopton, Doug. Money laundering: a concise guide for all business. Gower, 2016.
Levi, Michael. "Money for crime and money from crime: Financing crime and laundering
crime proceeds." European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research, 2015
Levi, Michael. Regulating Fraud (Routledge Revivals): White-Collar Crime and the Criminal
Process. Routledge, 2013
Levi, Michael. The phantom capitalists: The organization and control of long-firm fraud.
Routledge, 2016
Madinger, John. Money laundering: A guide for criminal investigators. CRC Press, 2016
Qureshi, Waseem Ahmad. "An Overview of Money Laundering in Pakistan and Worldwide:
Causes, Methods, and Socioeconomic Effects." U. Bologna L. Rev. 2 (2017): 302.
Unger, Brigitte, and Daan Van der Linde, eds. Research handbook on money laundering.
Edward Elgar Publishing, 2013.

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Dissertation
Unger, Brigitte, et al. The Economic and Legal Effectiveness of the European Union s Anti-
Money Laundering Policy. Edward Elgar Publishing, 2014.