Legalization «laundering» of funds obtained by criminal route as one of the types of economic transnational crimes

The article considers one of the types of transnational economic crimes - legalization (laundering) of proceeds from crime. Emphasis is placed on the fact that the legalization (laundering) of proceeds from crime is a predicate offense, because it is not characteristic of any one type of organized crime, but for a very wide range of transnational crimes, because the vast majority of them are for profit and criminally acquired assets. In this regard, the process of investigating and providing legal assistance in the investigation of such economic transnational crimes has a number of features and obstacles. The need for an appropriate legal framework for international cooperation in the fight against money laundering (laundering) is indicated. Three main stages of legalization (laundering) of criminal proceeds as one of the economic transnational crimes have been identified and analyzed. Thus, the first stage of such illegal actions is: placement of cash in the normal circulation of money (the process of penetration of proceeds from crime into the economic system, which aims to free the holder of a large sum of funds from cash and its placement in national or foreign currency in cash turnover, for the next stage). The second stage of legalization (laundering) of proceeds from crime is camouflage (hiding traces and ways of spreading) or cash circulation, which includes a number of financial transactions aimed at concealing the source of money. The third stage is defined as integration (return and legalization of «laundered» money), full entry of funds into the legal economic system, where they can be used for any purpose. It is emphasized that in the process of legalization (laundering) of proceeds from crime, there are certain periods (or «bottlenecks»), during which the risk of detecting such illegal activities increases significantly. Even with the large number of options, methods and forms of money laundering, such periods cannot always be avoided, which significantly increases the risk of detection of such illegal activities by financial intelligence units or other competent authorities. Such periods include: the process of receiving cash into the financial system; movement of cash flows across the state border; transfers within the financial system and at the exit from the financial system. Given this, in order to ensure the successful functioning of the entire system of legalization (laundering) of proceeds from crime, this process is usually performed by persons who are professionally engaged in management procedures for investing legalized proceeds in legal real estate and other assets. It is noted that effective counteraction to the process of legalization (laundering) of proceeds from crime is impossible without the legal settlement of international cooperation in the investigation and collection of evidence of such economic transnational crimes.