Money laundering offences: Out with certainty, in with discretion?
Mathew Leighton-Daly
What the paper says
Federal money laundering offences are contained in Division 400 of the Schedule to the Criminal Code Act 1995 (“Criminal Code”). Division 400 Criminal Code offences are drafted in very broad terms and have resulted in the criminalisation of activities which go beyond traditional notions of money laundering. On the assumption that certainty is a paramount requirement in a State aspiring to the political ideal of the rule of law, this article explores the scope of the offences in Division 400 Criminal Code especially when used in combination with Commonwealth revenue and financial reporting offences (as ‘predicate’ or ‘in prospect’ offences) by reference to some recent superior court decisions. It argues that the regime is too broad to be consistent with the requirement for certainty, and that prosecutorial discretion alone is an inadequate counter balance. Finally, it proposes amendments to the provisions.
Evidence weight
Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40
| F · citation impact | 0.00 × 0.4 = 0.00 |
| M · momentum | 0.20 × 0.15 = 0.03 |
| V · venue signal | 0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03 |
| R · text relevance † | 0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20 |
† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.