Money laundering in Namibia

Abstract

Abstract provided by author

.During the writing of this dissertation it came to light that, the crime of money laundering originated in the United States of America during the 1930's. Although the first person to be charged with the crime of money laundering was eventually only found guilty of tax invasion, the quest to combat money laundering began. After a number of cases before courts and enactment of money laundering laws in the United States of America, it then used its influence on the global level and this lead to the formation of Conventions on the combating of money laundering on a global scale. This is illustrated in the first chapter of this dissertation

All the countries in the dissertation are of Common Law jurisdiction and they were chosen for geographic and common interest reasons. For instance South Africa had a political and economical link with Namibia prior the independence of Namibia and the two countries still have strong economic and legislative ties to date. Thus it was necessary to illustrate how the connection is further embedded within the two countries' money laundering laws. The United States of America was chosen due to the fact that money laundering has its origins in that country and furthermore the said country has had a tremendous influence on the formation of the International instruments of money laundering and on top of that, these International instruments were acceded by Namibia. This is evidenced by the three pieces of legislation enacted in Namibia in the combating money laundering. Chapter two of the dissertation illustrates the relationship of legislation regarding money laundering in Namibia with the International instruments. United Kingdom which is the last country in the comparative study, is one of the G8 countries together with the United States of America which had a major influence that led to the formation of International instruments on the fight against money laundering to come into existence, and further more the United Kingdom has broad definition of money laundering in comparison with all other countries thus making its discussion in this dissertation relevant

In Namibia money laundering was codified in 2004, 2007 and 2008 with three different pieces of legislation respectively. All three are discussed, although emphasis shall be on the Financial Intelligence Act, No.3 of 2007, due to the fact that it is limited to money laundering in comparison with the other two Acts in Namibia which are much broader, in that terrorism is mentioned in those other two Acts, namely, the Prevention of Organized Crime Act of 2004 and the Prevention of Organized Crime Amendment Act of 2008. Further more the Financial Intelligence Act formed the Financial Centre of Namibia with a sole purpose of investigating the crime of money laundering and it gives certain powers to the Bank of Namibia and these powers raises the question in that are they Constitutional when Article thirteen of the Namibian constitution are considered. It was found that although no case has went before a Namibian court regarding money laundering yet, it can be concluded in this dissertation that due to the nature of the crime of money laundering it can be started that the powers conferred on the Financial Centre and the Bank of Namibia respectively are Constitutional. This is illustrated in chapter two whereby the right of privacy as is enshrined in the Namibian Constitution was intensively discussed and after

During the writing of this dissertation it came to light that, the crime of money laundering originated in the United States of America during the 1930's. Although the first person to be charged with the crime of money laundering was eventually only found guilty of tax invasion, the quest to combat money laundering began. After a number of cases before courts and enactment of money laundering laws in the United States of America, it then used its influence on the global level and this lead to the formation of Conventions on the combating of money laundering on a global scale. This is illustrated in the first chapter of this dissertation

In Namibia money laundering was codified in 2004, 2007 and 2008 with three different pieces of legislation respectively. All three are discussed, although emphasis shall be on the Financial Intelligence Act, No.3 of 2007, due to the fact that it is limited to money laundering in comparison with the other two Acts in Namibia which are much broader, in that terrorism is mentioned in those other two Acts, namely, the Prevention of Organized Crime Act of 2004 and the Prevention of Organized Crime Amendment Act of 2008. Further more the Financial Intelligence Act formed the Financial Centre of Namibia with a sole purpose of investigating the crime of money laundering and it gives certain powers to the Bank of Namibia and these powers raises the question in that are they Constitutional when Article thirteen of the Namibian constitution are considered. It was found that although no case has went before a Namibian court regarding money laundering yet, it can be concluded in this dissertation that due to the nature of the crime of money laundering it can be started that the powers conferred on the Financial Centre and the Bank of Namibia respectively are Constitutional. This is illustrated in chapter two whereby the right of privacy as is enshrined in the Namibian Constitution was intensively discussed and after