Group Proposal

A Study on the Relationship Between White

Collar Crime and Money Laundering:
A Case of country all over the world ( 1991-2008)

Prepared for:

PUAN BAHIJAH BINTI MD HASHIM

Prepared by:

SITI SOLEHAH BINTI GHAZALI 2009463212

YASSMIN FARVIN BT SURBDEEN 2009636644
WAN ZALEHA BINTI WAN WAHAB 2009238668
NUR SYAHMINA BINTI AZMI 2009285846

Group:
BMB3Ab
 INTRODUCTION

• Money laundering is a high complex and

professional industry, which is difficult for
ordinary criminals to commit.
• Professional secrecy exist in almost all
country although it varies from country to
country.
• Professional privilege are highly regulated by
professional ethics and discipline and they
have respectable social status.
 LITERATURE REVIEW

1. 321 Swiss Penal Code - members of the clergy,

lawyers, defenders in law, notaries, auditors under
an obligation of secrecy and doctors, dentists,
pharmacists, midwives, as well as their auxiliaries,
who have disclosed a secret entrusted to them in
view of their profession or of which they learned
exercising their profession, will be punished, on
complaint, by imprisonment or fine.
 Cont…
2. European Commission - what was perfectly clear was
that despite the grave concerns expressed over the
likelihood of the use of lawyers and accountants for
money laundering, these concerns are clearly not
yet shared by the professions themselves. Solicitors
and accountants continue to give concern with very
few reports being made, despite their relative
attractiveness to launderers. Accordingly, concerns
remain that some of the financial institutions and
sectors lack sufficient adherence to the regulations
and disclosure obligations, and may not have
adequate training provisions and reporting systems
in place, leaving themselves vulnerable to
laundering attempts.
 Cont…

3. Schneider, 2006 - , in a 2002 report, the FATF

expressed concerns that by abusing the legal
professional privilege, lawyers play helpful roles and
are beneficial to money launderers.
e.g. it has been reported that a prominent lawyer,
using his good reputation, operated a money
laundering network involving some 16 financial
institutions located in the Caribbean jurisdictions
and the USA (Ali, 2006).
 Cont…

4. FATF’s Recommendation 16 - professional secrecy is at risk if

onerous disclosure obligations are placed upon lawyers. It is a
concern that this will eventually lead to a loss in trust and
confidence by the general public in the legal profession. The
case of Robert Pang and the subsequent legislative
amendments illustrate clearly one point, that is, despite the
threats of money laundering, legal professional privilege as a
basic human right as well as a fundamental pillar of the
administration of justice cannot be undermined. This position
is reflected where it is stated that lawyers are not required to
report their suspicions if the relevant information was
obtained in circumstances where they are subject to
professional secrecy or legal professional privilege.
 Cont…

5. 2001 EC Directive - provides definitely that

not only financial institutions but also non-
financial persons or entities, such as
auditors; external accountants and
advisers ; real estate agents; notaries and
other independent legal professionals;
dealers in high value goods; casinos-all
should carry the responsibilities for anti
money laundering.(Directive, 2001)
 THEORITICAL FRAMEWORK

PROFESSIONAL INDUSTRY

PROFFESIONAL SECRECY MONEY

LAUNDERING

RESPECTABLE SOCIAL STATUS

INDEPENDENT DEPENDENT
VARIABLES VARIABLES
 OBJECTIVE

• To examine the relationship between the

professional industry and anti money laundering.
• To examine the relationship between the
professional secrecy and anti money laundering.
• To examine the relationship between the
respectable social status and anti money
laundering.
• To identify the most factor that has relationship
between anti money laundering.
 PROBLEM STATEMENT

• The white collar crimes such as lawyers, notaries,

accountants and other independent professionals
could play a significant role in prevention of money
laundering activities, however, imposing anti-money
laundering obligations on these professionals is
always a sensitive and puzzling topic and causes a lot
of debate. So the researcher need
 HYPOTHESES
1. H0 =There is no relationship between the white collar crime
professional industries and the professional industry.
H1=There is a relationship between the white collar crime
professional industries and the professional industry.
2. H0 =There is no relationship between the white collar crime
professional industries and the professional secrecy.
H1=There is a relationship between the white collar crime
professional industries and the professional secrecy.
3. H0 =There is no relationship between the white collar crime
professional industries and the respectable social status.
H1=There is a relationship between the white collar crime
professional industries and the respectable social status.
 SIGNIFICANT OF THE STUDY

• These professionals (lawyers, notaries,

accountant and other professionals) may
perform legal proceeding on behalf of client
such as providing legal advice for criminal
suspect, carrying out advocacy for dependent
provide specific financial or companies law
activities such buying or selling properties.
 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
• Lawyers, notaries, accountants and other
professionals provide a wide range of services, and a
large number of services are closely related to
economic activities, such as creation of corporate
vehicles, buying or selling of property, performing
financial transactions and the like.
• All of these operations are considerable vulnerable to
money laundering crimes. Even if the professionals
are reluctant to aid criminals to launder money
purposely, they may participate in the money
laundering schemes unconsciously.
 RESEARCH METHOD
• The regression analysis was conducted to call for the legislature
to pay more attention to the professional laundering and to
improve the capability in attacking money laundering, to analysis
the necessity and rational of bringing these professional under
the obligation of anti money laundering and to present
reasonable solution to the contradiction between professional
privilege and anti money laundering obligation.
• Theoretically, this study confirms that these professional are
vulnerable to money laundering and also they are in a better
position than financial institution in the prevention of money
laundering. For this reasons more and more international
documents stipulate that non financial institution including
lawyers, notaries and accountant should assume anti money
laundering obligation.