La mondialisation des échanges, générant un accroissement des volumes de transactions financières, a été accompagnée par une mondialisation des activités criminelles. Les techniques de blanchiment se sont adaptées à cette réalité économique. La lutte anti-blanchiment est intrinsèquement un sujet complexe qui a mobilisé une volonté d’architecture ouverte entre les acteurs publics et une interdépendance entre les régulateurs et les institutions financières. Son objectif est de viser l’action des organisations criminelles transnationales qui ont su tirer profit de la congruence entre la sophistication financière et l’ère du numérique. La réglementation de ces dernières années, concernant la lutte anti-blanchiment d’argent et lutte contre le financement du terrorisme, a mis en relief l’émergence du droit souple avec, parallèlement, un changement paradigmatique pour les institutions financières qui se retrouvent désormais à appliquer des normes restrictives émanant du législateur et d’appliquer des normes de contrainte, ou incitatives, provenant de différentes autorités de régulation, générant parfois une perception de superposition réglementaire. Insérées dans le dispositif mondial de lutte anti blanchiment, les institutions financières doivent s’adapter cette inflation réglementaire qui persiste depuis plusieurs années. Ce changement de texture normative se caractérise par une combinaison de ces différents droits dont le mouvement ne cesse de se prolonger avec le droit de la régulation bancaire et financière. Ce droit de la régulation bancaire et financière invite les institutions financières à adopter une certaine élasticité dans la mise en place des dispositifs de conformité permettant la mise en oeuvre d’outils systémiques face à une complexité endémique de la délinquance financière. La mondialisation de la criminalité financière appelle à la nécessité de la mondialisation du droit via un système de contrôle adapté de la part des acteurs de la finance. Dans ce contexte, le juriste en conformité voit ses prérogatives revisitées et sa perception bouleversée par ce mouvement de plaque tectonique réglementaire. / Globalization of trade and financial transactions have been followed by globalization of financial crime.Money laundering techniques have converged in light of this economic reality. Anti-Money laundering is considered like a complex topic wich includes interaction between regulator bodies and financial institutions. It aims to counter international criminal transactions taking advantage of financial innovation and digital evolution. The anti-money laundering regulation of recents years highlights soft law wich results new normative paradigm producing regulatory overlay.Inserted in anti-money laundering worldwide program, financial institutions have to deal with regulatory inflation that has lasted for several years. This normative mutation is defined by different laws combination whose movement continues to grow with banking and financial regulatory. This banking and financial regulatory requires financial institutions to put in place a flexibility compliance program with systemic tools to cope with white-collar complexity environment. Financial crime globalization needs globalization law and regulation wich uses financial institutions monitoring system. In this context, the compliance lawyer must adapt his perception and mission with respect to tectonic plate regulation movement.

I en värld där teknologi möjliggör förflyttning av pengar skyndsamt till varje hörn, blir arbete mot penningtvätt allt viktigare. På en global nivå tvättas stora belopp årligen och i Sverige uppmärksammas penningtvättsskandaler inom banksektorn. Denna studie är utformad för att försöka förstå varför penningtvätt kan förekomma trots intern kontroll i banker. Detta genom att använda Internal Control Maturity Model för att mäta nivån på den befintliga interna kontrollen i storbanker. För att motarbeta penningtvätt har finansinspektionen skapat interna riktlinjer för att svenska banker ska kunna verka lagligt. Dessa riktlinjer har använts som underlag för en kvalitativ undersökning som har gjorts med hjälp av fem respondenter. Studiens resultat visade på att uppfyllelse av finansinspektionens riktlinjer innebär att bankerna håller sig inom lagen men att ändamålet som innebär motverkan av penningtvätt, inte alltid uppnås. Detta på grund av att nivån på bankernas interna kontroll inte alltid är fullt effektiv. Resultatet går dock inte att generalisera på grund av ett för litet urval av banker samt respondenter. Studien kan därför inte användas som underlag för bedömning av hur den interna kontrollen ser ut på andra banker.

Money laundering is believed to have been around since the introduction of money. It is a vast, international problem which challenges law enforcement agencies and legislating authorities, as well as financial institutions and organizations of interest, all over the world. The past few years, something new has snuck up on law enforcement agencies and legislating authorities, namely Blockchain technology and cryptocurrency. This has caused a number of reactions, such as nations and international organizations quickly updating their anti-money laundering regulations. This goes to show how money laundering is constantly evolving, which makes targeting this crime a constant challenge. There is currently a lot of research being conducted on Money Laundering and specifically research on how to tackle the issue. What this study wishes to contribute with is an overview of the recently published (year 2020), available literature on the matter, to facilitate the continuous work on how to best prevent and detect this crime. The aim with this study is to look at already existing literature and to establish what the current focus is when combatting Money Laundering. It is based on three research questions; What are the three main focus’ areas? What are the challenges? How is anti-money laundering regulations tackling cryptocurrency? The method used is a narrative literature review and the search was conducted through Malmö University Electronic Library. Following explicit inclusion and exclusion criteria, the analysis was based on a total of 22 articles. The results show that the focus’ areas’ and challenges are; cryptocurrency and specifically the EU’s fifth anti-money laundering directive, challenges with international cooperation, and lastly, the role of financial institutions and identifying the beneficial owner.

Bakgrund och problemdiskussion: Mellan åren 2015-2020 har Nordea, Svenska Handelsbanken, SEB och Swedbank vid flertalet tillfällen delgivits sanktionsavgifter för brister i arbetet mot korruption och penningtvätt. Penningtvätt är en del av korruption och beskrivs av flertalet forskare som ett globalt problem där banker spelar en stor roll när det kommer till att dölja olagliga pengar. Banker som tidigare varit inblandade i skandaler tenderar att ha bristande förtroende bland intressenter vilket bland annat påverkar bankernas legitimitet negativt.  Syfte: Syftet med denna undersökning är att redogöra för vilken information som Nordea, Svenska Handelsbanken, SEB och Swedbank avslöjar i sina hållbarhetsredovisningar om korruption och penningtvätt utifrån indikatorerna i GRI 205: Anti-corruption. Studien syftar till att analysera innehållet i de skriftliga hållbarhetsredovisningarna för att således kunna dra slutsatser kring eventuella likheter och skillnader gällande bankernas avslöjande om korruption och penningtvätt.  Metod: För att besvara studiens forskningsfråga har en kvalitativ innehållsanalys som datainsamlingsmetod tillämpats. Den kvalitativa innehållsanalysen har legat till grund för analysen av Nordeas, Svenska Handelsbankens, SEB:s och Swedbanks hållbarhetsredovisningar för åren 2017 till 2020.  Slutsats: Studiens resultat visar på att samtliga banker avslöjar mest information om affärshändelser avseende risk för korruption samt kommunikation och utbildning om politik och procedurer mot korruption. Denna studie konstaterar även att det avslöjas minst information gällande åtgärder som vidtagits på grund av korruptionincidenter. Dock utmärker sig Svenska Handelsbanken i detta då de avslöjar inträffade händelser kring korruption och penningtvätt som de varit involverade i, vilket resterande banker inte gör. Detta samtidigt som Svenska Handelsbanken är den bank som varit minst involverade i korruptionsskandaler de senaste åren, i jämförelse med Nordea, SEB och Swedbank. Studien visade även på att samtliga banker enbart redovisar kring några utvalda punkter inom varje indikator. Bankerna avslöjar endast information som berör en eller få av alla de punkter inom GRI 205: Anti-corruption. / Background and problem: Between the years 2015-2020, the banks Nordea, Svenska Handelsbanken, SEB and Swedbank have on most occasions been notified of penalty fees for shortcomings in the work against corruption and money laundering. Money laundering is a part of corruption and is described by most researchers as a global problem where banks play a major role when it comes to hiding illegal money. Banks that have previously been involved in scandals tend to have a lack of trust among stakeholders, which among other things, has a negative effect on banks’ legitimacy.  Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to report on Nordea´s, Svenska Handelsbanken´s, SEB´s and Swedbank´s corruption and money laundering disclosure, based on the indicators in GRI 205: Anti-corruption, in their sustainability reports. The study aims to analyze the content of the sustainability reports of the four banks in order to draw conclusions about possible similarities and differences regarding the banks’ corruption and money laundering disclosure.  Method: In order to answer the study's research question, a qualitative content analysis has been applied. The qualitative content analysis has formed the basis for the analysis of the four major Swedish banks´sustainability reports for the years 2017 to 2020.  Findings: The results of the study shows that all banks reveal most information about business activities regarding the risk of corruption as well as communication and education about policies and procedures against corruption. This study also ensures that it reveals the least information regarding measures taken due to corruption incidents. However, Svenska Handelsbanken excels in this as they reveal incidents of corruption and money laundering that they have been involved in, which the remaining banks do not. This at the same time as Svenska Handelsbanken is the bank that has been least involved in corruption scandals in recent years, in comparison with Nordea, SEB and Swedbank. The study also showed that all banks only report on a few selected parts within each indicator. Banks only disclose information that affects or receives all points within GRI 205: Anti-Corruption.

Magister Legum - LLM / From failing to arrest and surrender Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir1 in accordance with its obligations under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court2 (Rome Statute), to its President acting inconsistently with its Supreme law3, it is evident that the rule of law is under threat in South Africa. Furthermore, South Africa has witnessed the cultivation of a culture of impunity for corruption in high office. South Africa has also experienced an increase in heinous crimes committed against women and children. The South African Rand recently plummeted given that its Minister of Finance Pravin Gordhan, recently faced charges of fraud4, as well as the ripple effect caused by the Fees Must Fall Movement.5 Against the backdrop of the above-mentioned issues that plague South Africa and hinder its development, the fight against money laundering hardly seems of pivotal importance in achieving the desired stability and development of the country. There is a public perception that money laundering is a crime of little consequence.8 This perception derives from the fact that money laundering does not have a direct impact on its victims and in some instances benefits the economy as it increases the profits for the financial sector and results in a greater availability of credit.9 Laundered money arguably is not harmful but rather beneficial to developing economies because money remains money, whether it is proceeds of crime or honestly earned.10 Although an increase in money is appealing to developing countries, the benefits that accompany laundered money are short-lived as the crime affects society adversely in the long run.11 However, where a country fails to prevent and prosecute money laundering offences, the prevalence of money laundering will impede the development of a state as it not only increases the profitability of crime and encourages the prevalence of corruption, but it also causes damage to critical financial sector institutions.12 Money laundering influences the commission of crimes that generate large amounts of profit, namely, organised crime, which is often described as the twin brother of money laundering.13 This is because criminals do not commit crimes to make money only but to enjoy this money as well.14 However, criminals need to launder their money in order to enjoy the proceeds of their criminal activities without drawing attention to these activities.15 Countries that combat money laundering effectively make it more difficult for criminals to launder the proceeds of their crimes. It becomes more risky for them to indulge in their ill-gotten gains, thus dissuading them from engaging in economic criminality.16 Money laundering is a process where the proceeds of crime are concealed and disguised in order to make them appear lawful.17 Criminals are thus able to enjoy the financial benefits of the crimes they commit.18 The pervasiveness of money laundering in a country does not only affect the confidence the public have in the country’s financial institutions but also undermines the confidence foreign investors and financial institutions have in a developing state’s financial institutions.19 A country can, therefore, run the risk of not benefitting from foreign direct investment.20 The financial institutions rely heavily on what the public think about their integrity.21

Det finansiella systemet har påverkats starkt av den digitala utveckling som sker. Till följd av digitaliseringen så har digitala transaktioner inom banker ökat kraftigt och arbetet mot penningtvätt och finansiering av terrorism spelar en allt större roll. Det har utforskats i teorin att automatisera processer och manuellt tidskrävande uppgifter med hjälp av artificiell intelligens men bankerna är försiktiga och avvaktande. Syftet med studien är därför att undersöka en storbank och dess medarbetares acceptans av en ny AI-baserad AML-prototyp och vilka faktorer som påverkar införandet. Uppsatsens data är inhämtad från semistrukturerade intervjuer med fem olika experter inom en bank. Den insamlade empiriska data analyseras sedan utifrån en analysmodell baserad på Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology och tidigare forskning. Uppsatsens slutsatser är att egenskaper hos artificiell intelligens har en oklar inverkan, förväntad prestanda har en svagare positiv inverkan, förväntad ansträngning har en starkare positiv inverkan, sociala influenser har en oklar inverkan, underlättande förhållanden har en svagare positiv inverkan och beteendeintentionen har en svagare positiv inverkan.

In 2018, Europol (2018) estimated that more than $22 billion dollars were laundered in Europe by using cryptocurrencies. The Financial Action Task Force explains that moneylaunderers may exchange their illicitly gained fiat-money for crypto, launder that crypto by distributing the funds to multiple accounts and then re-exchange the crypto back to fiat-currency. This process of exchanging currencies is done through a cryptocurrency exchange, giving the exchange an ideal position to prevent money laundering from happening as it acts as middleman (FATF, 2021). However, current AML efforts at these exchanges have shown to be outdated and need to be improved. Furthermore, Weber et al. (2019) argue that machine learning could be used for this endeavor. The study's purpose is to investigate how machine learning can be used to combat money laundering activities performed using cryptocurrency. This is done by exploring what machine learning algorithms are suitable for this purpose. In addition, the study further seeks to understand the applicability of the investigated algorithms by exploring their fit at cryptocurrency exchanges. To answer the research question, four supervised-learning algorithms are compared by using the Bitcoin Elliptic Dataset. Moreover, with the objective of quantitively understanding the algorithmic performance differences, three key evaluation metrics are used: F1-score, precision and recall. Then, in order to understand the investigated algorithms applicability, two complementary qualitative interviews are performed at Swedish cryptocurrency exchanges. The study cannot conclude if there is a most suitable algorithm for detecting transactions related to money-laundering. However, the applicability of the decision tree algorithm seems to be more promising at Swedish cryptocurrency exchanges, compared to the other three algorithms. / Europol (2018) uppskattade år 2018, att mer än 22 miljarder USD tvättades i Europa genom användning av kryptovalutor. Financial Action Task Force förklarar att penningtvättare kan byta deras olagligt förvärvade fiat-valutor mot kryptovaluta, tvätta kryptovalutan genom att fördela tillgångarna till ett flertal konton och sedan återväxla kryptovalutan tillbaka till fiat-valuta. Denna process, att växla valutor, görs genom en kryptovalutaväxlare, vilket ger växlaren en ideal position för att förhindra att tvättning sker eftersom de agerar som mellanhänder (FATF, 2021). Dock har de aktuella AMLansträngningarna vid dessa växlare visat sig vara föråldrade och i behov av förbättring. Dessutom hävdar Weber et al. (2019) att maskininlärning skulle kunna användas i denna strävan. Denna studies syfte är att undersöka hur maskininlärning kan användas för att bekämpa penningtvättaktiviteter där kryptovaluta används. Detta görs genom att utforska vilka maskininlärningsalgoritmer som är användbara för detta ändamål. Dessutom strävar undersökningen till att ge förståelse för tillämpligheten hos de undersökta algoritmerna genom att utforska deras lämplighet hos kryptovalutaväxlare. För att besvara frågeställningen har fyra supervised-learning algoritmer jämförts genom att använda Bitcoin Elliptic Dataset. För att kvantitativt förstå olikheterna i algoritmisk prestanda, har tre utvärderingsverktyg använts: F1-score, Precision och Recall. Slutligen, för att ytterligare förstå de undersökta algoritmernas tillämplighet, har två kompletterande kvalitativa intervjuer med svenska kryptovalutaväxlare gjorts. Studien kan inte dra slutsatsen att det finns en bästa algoritm för att upptäcka transaktioner som kan relateras till penningtvätt. Dock verkar tillämpbarheten hos decision tree algoritmen vara mer lovande vid de svenska kyptovalutaväxlarna än de tre andra algoritmerna.

The article discusses the intersection of anti-money laundering (AML) compliance and the handling of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) under German law or EU law applicable in Germany. It begins by acknowledging the negative perception of cryptocurrencies in the context of money laundering, emphasizing the need to explore AML regulations for NFTs, which have gained attention for tokenizing art. The text delves into the legal nature of NFTs, examining whether they can be classified as securities, asset investments, or crypto assets. It also explores the implications of these classifications on AML compliance, detailing the specific obligations for entities dealing with NFTs. The article concludes by highlighting the legal ambiguity surrounding NFTs and emphasizing the importance of conducting a case-by-case risk assessment for AML compliance.

La presente investigación tiene por objetivo determinar de qué manera la incorporación de los elementos de convicción del aspirante a colaboración eficaz afecta el debido proceso en el delito de lavado de activos, contribuyendo así a evitar procesos arbitrarios, abusivos e imparciales. Para ello, primero, fue necesario desarrollar los elementos de convicción del aspirante a colaboración eficaz en los procesos de lavado de activos; y segundo, analizar la afectación del debido proceso en el delito de lavado de activos para de esta manera proponer en nuestra normativa vigente una transformación basada en el análisis de las normas actuales, así como de las instituciones jurídicas fundamentales. / The objective of this investigation is to propose the modification of the effective collaborator process in order to respect due process, thus contributing to avoid arbitrary, abusive and impartial processes. For this, first, it was necessary to analyze and interpret the figure of the effective collaborator in the asset laundering processes as a special process and as the declaration of the collaborator to the principle of contradiction; and second, fundamental the importance of the contradiction of the declaration of the effective collaborator in order to propose in this way in our current regulations a transformation based on the analysis of the current regulations, as well as the fundamental legal institutions.

Criminality related to organized crime and criminal networks, with gun violence, bombings, drug trafficking and money laundering, is a growing problem in Sweden. Many of these crimes are made possible through the network's links to legitimate businesses and the use of enablers - a field of research which has been historically underwhelming - but that is now starting to spark the interest of researchers and politicians alike. This thesis explores the phenomenon of these enablers in organized crime and criminal networks. The data consisted of a large sample of Swedish court documents that contain the verdicts derived from the encrypted chat services Anom, Encrochat and SkyECC. The aim of this thesis was to investigate the connections between individuals involved in organized crime and legitimate businesses. The results showed that 42 percent of the analysed cases contained enablers. A majority of the crimes that involved one or more enablers also involved narcotics, and that the legitimate businesses linked to the enablers were companies operating in professions such as the transportation sector, auto shops, exchange offices, law enforcement, storage or moving. Professional drivers were the most frequently prosecuted persons in the convictions, followed by business owners. Common themes for how the enablers presented in the material were related to the drug trafficking process and storing process. The results tell us that the use of enablers seem to be a relatively common aspect of organized crime operations and that it is, as previous research suggests, likely a problem that will only grow.