The economies and financial systems of countries the world over haveover the years been severely affected in one way or another through money laundering, a derivative crime from ill-gotten wealth such as trafficking in drugs, arms or human beings, as well as fraud, tax evasion and corruption in governance and society.
Money laundering is simply the process of making the proceeds of crime to appear to have legitimate origin, and worldwide estimates of the amount of money laundered annually range from US$700 billion to US$1.8 trillion, about 5% of the world's GDP.Action, therefore, to prevent and combat money laundering and the financing of terrorism responds not only to a moral imperative, but also to an economic need, says Dr Abdullahi Shehu, director general of the Inter-Governmental Action Group Against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA), which a week ago held an intensive workshop in The Gambia for accountants on issues of money laundering.
...