Jamaica: Combating Money Laundering — A Review of the Money Laundering Act 1996
| Pages | 261-267 |
| Date | 01 January 1998 |
| Published date | 01 January 1998 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb027149 |
| Author | Shazeeda A. Ali |
| Subject Matter | Accounting & finance |
Journal of Money Laundering Control — Vol. 1 No. 3 — Ali
Jamaica: Combating Money Laundering — A
Review of the Money Laundering Act 1996
Shazeeda A. Ali
INTRODUCTION
After several months of controversy and heated
debate the Money Laundering Act 1996 ('the
MLA') has survived its tumultuous passage
through Parliament and will take effect immi-
nently.1 Meanwhile, Jamaicans wait with bated
breath to see if it lives up to the expectations —
and fears — of the vociferous few.
The objectives of the legislation are 'to provide
for the tracing of assets derived from trafficking in
narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances and
from such other offences as may be prescribed and
for the imposition of appropriate sanctions against
persons who seek to acquire, conceal, convert or
transfer those assets ...'.2 This law represents the
fulfilment of Jamaica's obligations under Article
3(l)(b) of the 1988 United Nations Convention
Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psy-
chotropic Substances (the Vienna Convention),
which enjoins state parties to criminalise the laun-
dering of the proceeds of drug trafficking.3
Money laundering involves the process by
which money with an illegitimate heritage is made
to appear to have lawful roots through its immer-
sion into the legitimate financial system. The aim
of the launderer is 'to obscure the source and,
thus,
the nature of the wealth in question and the
modus
operandi
will inevitably involve transactions,
real or imagined ... designed to confuse the
onlooker and confound the inquirer'.4
Drug trafficking yields enormous profits, usually
in cash, and often in small denominations. The
physical existence of such money is not only cum-
bersome but would be impossible to spend with-
out arousing the suspicions of the authorities. To
camouflage the origin of this wealth and convert it
to a more usable and untraceable form traffickers
engage their profits in a myriad of financial trans-
actions devised to obfuscate the link between their
earnings and the crime generating such affluence.
Another hallmark of drug trafficking is that it is
rarely the vocation of sole practitioners bur rather
is the trade of organised criminal groups.5 Arrest-
ing individual peddlers has proved to be an inade-
quate solution for destroying drug trafficking
operations as successors emerge to perpetuate their
legacy.6
The raison d'être for drug dealing is money;
revenue is used for the pleasure of the 'owners'
and for financing the expansion of their enterprise,
so to effectively inhibit traffickers law enforcement
has to hit them where it hurts i.e. in their pockets!
By so doing, the means and motive for the survival
of the organisation will be destroyed.7 One strategy
for achieving the extinction of drug gangs is to
confiscate their assets. In this regard, Jamaica has
recently enacted the Drug Offences (Forfeiture of
Proceeds) Act 1994 (DOFPA) whereby on convic-
tion of a specified drug offence a forfeiture order
may be made against the property used in or
derived from that offence and/or an equivalent
pecuniary order made against the convicted
person.8 Ironically, the experience of other juris-
dictions with similar forfeiture legislation is that
these laws actually encourage traffickers to launder
their money as they endeavour to secrete the scent
of their spoils from the reach of the authorities.9 In
order to entrap these elusive traffickers the activity
of drug money laundering has now been crim-
inalised.
THE OFFENCE OF MONEY
LAUNDERING
Section 3(1) of the MLA creates the crime of
money laundering.10 The offence is committed
where in relation to any property derived from the
commission of a specified drug
offence11
a person
either engages in a transaction12 involving that
property, or acquires, possesses, uses, conceals, dis-
guises,13 disposes of or brings into Jamaica such
property or converts, transfers or removes that
property from Jamaica.14 'Property' is defined
widely to include 'money and all other property,
real or personal, including things in action and
other intangible or incoporated property'.15 Where
Page 261
To continue reading
Request your trial