IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eme/jfcpps/jfc-07-2022-0161.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Virtual money laundering: policy implications of the proliferation in the illicit use of cryptocurrency

Author

Listed:
  • Christian Leuprecht
  • Caitlyn Jenkins
  • Rhianna Hamilton

Abstract

Purpose - This study aims to explain how cryptocurrency is leveraged for illicit purposes across the global financial system. Specifically, it establishes how cryptocurrency has been changing the nature of transnational and domestic money laundering (ML). It then assesses the effectiveness of conventional anti-money laundering (AML) policy and legislation against the proliferation of crypto laundering, using Canada as a critical case study. Design/methodology/approach - Data was collected from court cases and secondary sources to build cross-case trends of cryptocurrency use in ML. Illicit International Political Economy forms the theoretical foundation for this study, whose contribution is situated in the current literature on crypto-ML. Findings - This study finds that Bitcoin is common among crypto-money launderers, though most also use some form of alt-coin, and that the use of third-party currency exchanges is a prevalent method to create illicit funds and conceal proceeds of crime. The findings validate two hypotheses that illicit use of crypto is prevalent in the first two stages of ML, and that crypto is most often used in conjunction with other fiat currencies. Although law enforcement is improving on monitoring and understanding popular cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, alt-coins pose a significant challenge for criminal intelligence. New regulations for third-party currency exchanges are having a positive impact on curtailing crypto-laundering but are shown to be insufficient per se to contain the use of crypto in criminal activity. Originality/value - This study contributes to a more robust understanding of the use of virtual currency in transnational and domestic ML. It contributes to an emerging body of literature on the role of technological change in enabling the global flow of illicit funds. It also informs public policy on virtual currency in general, and on AML regulation in Canada in particular.

Suggested Citation

  • Christian Leuprecht & Caitlyn Jenkins & Rhianna Hamilton, 2022. "Virtual money laundering: policy implications of the proliferation in the illicit use of cryptocurrency," Journal of Financial Crime, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 30(4), pages 1036-1054, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:eme:jfcpps:jfc-07-2022-0161
    DOI: 10.1108/JFC-07-2022-0161
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/JFC-07-2022-0161/full/html?utm_source=repec&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=repec
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/JFC-07-2022-0161/full/pdf?utm_source=repec&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=repec
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1108/JFC-07-2022-0161?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sean Foley & Jonathan R Karlsen & Tālis J Putniņš, 2019. "Sex, Drugs, and Bitcoin: How Much Illegal Activity Is Financed through Cryptocurrencies?," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 32(5), pages 1798-1853.
    2. Raffaella Barone & Donato Masciandaro, 2011. "Organized crime, money laundering and legal economy: theory and simulations," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 32(1), pages 115-142, August.
    3. Tim Legrand & Christian Leuprecht, 2021. "Securing cross-border collaboration: transgovernmental enforcement networks, organized crime and illicit international political economy [A tale of two borders: The US-Canada and US-Mexico lines af," Policy and Society, Darryl S. Jarvis and M. Ramesh, vol. 40(4), pages 565-586.
    4. Chad Albrecht & Kristopher McKay Duffin & Steven Hawkins & Victor Manuel Morales Rocha, 2019. "The use of cryptocurrencies in the money laundering process," Journal of Money Laundering Control, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 22(2), pages 210-216, May.
    5. Valeriia Dyntu & Oleh Dykyi, 2018. "Cryptocurrency In The System Of Money Laundering," Baltic Journal of Economic Studies, Publishing house "Baltija Publishing", vol. 4(5).
    6. Shamil Shovkhalov & Hussein Idrisov, 2021. "Economic and Legal Analysis of Cryptocurrency: Scientific Views from Russia and the Muslim World," Laws, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-17, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Aziz N. Berdiev & Rajeev K. Goel & James W. Saunoris, 2024. "Global cryptocurrency use, corruption, and the shadow economy: New insights into the underlying linkages," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 83(3), pages 609-629, May.
    2. Nasir Sultan & Norazida Mohamed & Mervyn Martin & Hafizah Mohd Latif, 2023. "Virtual currencies and money laundering: existing and prospects for jurisdictions that comprehensively prohibited virtual currencies like Pakistan," Journal of Money Laundering Control, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 27(2), pages 395-412, May.
    3. Vinay Asthana, 2024. "Corruption and crypto participation: Cross-country evidence," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 44(2), pages 720-730.
    4. Raffaella Barone & Donato Masciandaro, 2019. "Cryptocurrency or usury? Crime and alternative money laundering techniques," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 47(2), pages 233-254, April.
    5. Goel, Rajeev K. & Mazhar, Ummad, 2024. "Cryptocurrency use and tax collections: Direct and indirect channels of influence," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    6. Matteo Cristofaro & Pier Luigi Giardino & Sanjay Misra & Quoc Trung Pham & Hai Hiep Phan, 2022. "Behavior or culture? Investigating the use of cryptocurrencies for electronic commerce across the USA and China," Management Research Review, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 46(3), pages 340-368, May.
    7. Hanna Halaburda & Guillaume Haeringer & Joshua Gans & Neil Gandal, 2022. "The Microeconomics of Cryptocurrencies," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 60(3), pages 971-1013, September.
    8. Goodell, John W. & Goutte, Stephane, 2021. "Co-movement of COVID-19 and Bitcoin: Evidence from wavelet coherence analysis," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 38(C).
    9. Binh Nguyen Quang & Thai‐Ha Le & Canh Nguyen Phuc, 2022. "Influences of uncertainty on the returns and liquidity of cryptocurrencies: Evidence from a portfolio approach," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(2), pages 2497-2513, April.
    10. Anil Donmez & Alexander Karaivanov, 2022. "Transaction fee economics in the Ethereum blockchain," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 60(1), pages 265-292, January.
    11. Erdogan Kaygin & Yunus Zengin & Ethem Topcuoglu & Serdal Ozkes, 2021. "The Evaluation of Block Chain Technology within the Scope of Ripple and Banking Activities," Journal of Central Banking Theory and Practice, Central bank of Montenegro, vol. 10(3), pages 153-167.
    12. Ahmet Faruk Aysan & Nawaz Farrukh, 2021. "China's Transition to a Digital Currency: Does It Threaten Dollarization?," Working Papers hal-03364939, HAL.
    13. Raphael Auer, 2019. "Beyond the doomsday economics of "proof-of-work" in cryptocurrencies," BIS Working Papers 765, Bank for International Settlements.
    14. Jason Scharfman, 2022. "Additional Crypto Operations and Compliance Topics," Springer Books, in: Cryptocurrency Compliance and Operations, edition 1, chapter 0, pages 205-221, Springer.
    15. Daniela Balutel & Walter Engert & Christopher S. Henry & Kim P. Huynh & Marcel Voia, 2024. "Explaining bitcoin ownership in Canada: Trends from 2016 to 2021," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 57(3), pages 777-798, August.
    16. Ashton, John & Burnett, Tim & Diaz-Rainey, Ivan & Ormosi, Peter, 2021. "Known unknowns: How much financial misconduct is detected and deterred?," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    17. Smales, L.A., 2019. "Bitcoin as a safe haven: Is it even worth considering?," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 385-393.
    18. Dyhrberg, Anne H. & Foley, Sean & Svec, Jiri, 2018. "How investible is Bitcoin? Analyzing the liquidity and transaction costs of Bitcoin markets," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 171(C), pages 140-143.
    19. René M. Stulz, 2022. "FinTech, BigTech, and the Future of Banks," Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, Morgan Stanley, vol. 34(1), pages 106-117, March.
    20. Di Casola, Paola & Habib, Maurizio Michael & Tercero-Lucas, David, 2023. "Global and local drivers of Bitcoin trading vis-à-vis fiat currencies," Working Paper Series 2868, European Central Bank.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eme:jfcpps:jfc-07-2022-0161. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Emerald Support (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.