Painting the picture: why art dealers should be added to Australia’s designated non-financial businesses and professions definition

Date30 April 2024
Pages1078-1091
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1108/JMLC-01-2024-0020
Published date30 April 2024
AuthorSophie Martin
Painting the picture: why art
dealers should be added to
Australias designated
non-f‌inancial businesses and
professions def‌inition
Sophie Martin
Faculty of Law, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia
Abstract
Purpose This paper aims to demonstrateto lawmakers that the addition of art dealers to the designated
non-f‌inancial businesses and professions (DNFBPs) def‌inition would provide Australia with more
comprehensiveprotection against money launderingwithin the art market.
Design/methodology/approach The paper opted for an exploratory study using doctrinal and
jurisdictional comparativeanalysis that focused on arguments for and against the inclusion of artdealers in
respective DNFBPs def‌initions.Evaluation of these arguments concludes that art dealers should be included
in AustraliasDNFBPs def‌inition and subject to anti-money laundering(AML) regulation.
Findings The current omission of art dealers from Australias DNFBPs def‌inition perpetuates AML
vulnerabilitieswithin the Australian art market.
Originality/value This paper fulf‌ils an identif‌ied need to study high-value dealers not includedin Australias
DNFBPs def‌initionand provide arguments for and against the inclusion of Australian art dealers in the listed DNFBP.
Keywords Money laundering, Art dealers, Designated non-f‌inancial businesses and professions,
Financial action task force
Paper type Conceptual paper
Background
As it stands, Australias anti-money laundering (AML) framework falls short of the Financial
Action Task Forces (FATF) Recommendations (2023a) leaving Australia as an attractive
money laundering (ML) destination. ML is a US$2tn industry with an estimated AU$200bn
funnelled through Australia annually (Heriot, 2011). ML is the process of cleansing proceeds of
crime so the funds present as legitimate gains to regulatory bodies to evade legal consequences
(Dagirmanjian, 2019, p. 689). This process can be reduced to three key steps: placement,
layering and integration (Teichmann, 2017, p. 131). Placement is the f‌irst stage of ML and
occurs when the criminal separates the illicit funds from the crime and integrates the funds into
the f‌inancial system. Layering is the second stage of ML and aims to disguise remaining traces
of the proceeds of crime through the movement of funds. Integration is the f‌inal stage of ML
and allows criminals to use their illicit funds within the legitimate economy. Although recent
scholarship has suggested alternatives to these ML steps, arguing they fail to address the
Thank you to my supervisor, Dr Doron Goldbarsht, for his support throughout my dissertation.
JMLC
27,6
1078
Journalof Money Laundering
Control
Vol.27 No. 6, 2024
pp. 1078-1091
© Emerald Publishing Limited
1368-5201
DOI 10.1108/JMLC-01-2024-0020
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/1368-5201.htm

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