e+Finance+Crime: A Report on Cyber-Crime and Money Laundering

• NCJ Number: 193999
• Author(s): Gyula Zombori
• Date Published: January 2001
• Length: 29 pages
• Sale Source: Nathanson Centre for the Study of Organized Crime and Corruption
• Publication Format: Document
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: Canada
• Note: Provided to the National Criminal Justice Reference Service as a courtesy by Dr. Margaret Beare, Director of the Nathanson Centre for the Study of Organized Crime and Corruption at York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. http://www.yorku.ca/nathanson

Annotation

This document examines the potential and known risks that cyber-crime and money laundering pose to business conducted over the Internet, with emphasis on its implications for Canada.

Abstract

The analysis focuses on the unique features of computer-related crime, how new technology has changed morals, how technology has brought new interpretations to the principles of criminal law, new challenges for e-business and law enforcement, and potential new tools for cyber-crime and money laundering. The discussion emphasizes that trust is essential to doing business and that money laundering is basic to crime in that it aids the conversion of illicit funds into the legitimate sphere, creating new power to commit new crimes and aiding offenders to live off the laundered money. Money laundering takes place worldwide and Internet-based crime often accompanies it. Canada’s laws to address Internet-based crimes include the Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) Act and the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act. Other efforts include the Vienna and Palermo conventions, the European Directive, the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering established by the G-7 Summit in Paris in 1989, the National Money Laundering Strategy for 2000 in the United States, and efforts by the Council of Europe. Addressing computer-related crime and money laundering requires societies to establish new rules of ethics and the criminal law to define cyber-crime offenses in a rapidly changing world. In addition, Internet-based business needs to seek new solutions to cyber crime. Police need to seek ways to find evidence within the speedy, anonymous, and encrypted array of data. Finally, countries and law enforcement need to balance international cooperation between dependence and independence and to find new ways to cooperate to address crime committed through the Internet.