O Processo de Branqueamento de Capitais

Since the end of the 80s, many studies have been brought on money laundering.The world has soon realized that not dispossessing criminals from their incredible economic resources can lead to ineffi ciency of the repressive instruments of modern societies, such as confi nement, bringing justice into discredit, undermining societies and in certain cases putting the structures of the State at risk. Both the organisations whose mission is to combat this disaster (law enforcement agencies and courts), and those that try to study its full extent (universities, formal and informal think tanks, the media, etc.), have always struggled to understand this phenomenon, breaking it down as much as possible,drawing its typologies and, if possible, predicting the respective trends and action methods. In this sense, this working paper intends to present an approach to the dynamic process of money laundering, describing its typical phases, identifying the sectors of activities that are more sensitive and exposed, and mainly indicating the most common typologies or methods, making use of the Portuguese case as reference. There is also an approach to the “fi gures” that commonly appear when money laundering is discussed, such as the alternative remittance systems,non-profi t organizations, offshore centres, online casinos and the Internet, as well as the role of the politically exposed persons, the PEPs. Although much thought has been put on this work, it is not a complex one. It is based on the available information, searching to include examples, real facts and statistical data where possible, so that anyone can judge by himself/ herself and subsequently deepen his/ her own knowledge.