A typological study on money laundering

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to make objective descriptions on various money‐laundering techniques and to put forward countermeasures in order to combat money laundering more effectively and efficiently. Design/methodology/approach - This paper based on 20 simplified money‐laundering cases, describes various money‐laundering techniques, analyses the reasons why these methods prevail, and points out the future efforts to be made in the fight against money laundering. Findings - As usual, the ways of money laundering include cash smuggling, making use of banks or insurance company, or making use of shell‐company or front‐company. Nowadays, criminals also turn to real estate, lottery, international trade, offshore company to launder money. Sometimes lawyers, accountants are exploited by money launderers. With the wide use of electronic money and internet, criminals prefer to launder money through non‐face to face transactions. The fight against money laundering is the fight between justice and evil. It is of great importance to pierce the secret veil of money laundering so that we can combat money laundering more effectively and efficiently. Originality/value - This paper prevents a comprehensive description of, and comments on, various money‐laundering techniques and future efforts to be made in the fight against money laundering, which would be beneficial to policy makers, enforcement authorities, and judicial professionals.