Money laundering and antinomies

Abstract

Combating money laundering is essential for confronting criminal organizations, which are the endemic root of crime in any region of the country or in any country in the world. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the limits to establish whether a determined felony is to be considered money laundering or not. In this sense, the paper initially
analyzes Law 9612/1998, in order to understand its scope, whether deceit is required or not, who can commit such crime and under what circumstances, while also analyzing the apparent antinomy between the crime of money laundering and the crimes of possession of stolen goods, keeping stolen goods for the benefit of another person and money smuggling. In particular, the analysis compares the difference between those criminal behaviors in order to define which crime is applicable to a specific case. The study seeks to verify if the crimes are equal at best or it they are deemed to coexist in the Brazilian legal system. In order to do this, the paper bases itself on doctrine, precedents and practical examples to investigate possible differentiation strategies.