MONEY LAUNDERING

All countries possess legislation to deal with money laundering - the disposal of the proceeds of criminal behaviour. It is possible that this may be applicable in the case of illegal logging, allowing enforcement agencies to seize the profits of forest crimes as well as taking action against the criminals themselves.

If the products are exported from the country of origin, or the proceeds of the crimes disposed of outside the country of origin, it may also be possible for the authorities in the country of import to seize the proceeds.

Whether this is possible in practice depends on two factors. First, whether illegal logging can be considered to be a 'predicate offence' - in other words, whether it qualifies under the money laundering legislation in the country of import. Different countries have adopted different laws. One common approach is to consider any activity to qualify that would be illegal in the country where the assets are disposed of. Other countries consider offences to qualify only if the penalities for them exceed a particular threshold (e.g. one year's imprisonment). It seems likely that illegal logging would quality as a predicate offence in most EU countries.

Second, and probably more serious, is the question of whether the legislation can be applied in practice. Close cooperation with enforcement agencies in the country where the illegal logging takes place will usually be necessary, and may be a significant obstacle to successful prosecutions.

DOCUMENTS

DATE	TITLE	AUTHOR
01/01/2013	Transnational Environmental Crime – a common crime in need of better enforcement This issue of UNEP's Global Environmental Alert Service (GEAS) newsletter focuses on environmental ...	UNEP Global Environmental Alert Service
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23/09/2012	Green Carbon: Black Trade - Illegal Logging, Tax Fraud and Laundering in the World's Tropical Forests This report focuses on illegal logging and its impacts on the lives and livelihoods of often some of ...	UNEP/Interpol
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20/09/2012	The Taib Timber Mafia: Facts and Figures on Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs) from Sarawak, Malaysia The authors of this report put the illicit assets of Taib Mahmud, the long-term Chief Minister of the ...	Bruno Manser Fund, Switzerland
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11/06/2012	Second Amended Verified Complaint for Forfeiture (against Teodorin Obiang, the son of the president of Equatorial Guinea) In this complaint, filed on 11th June 2012, the US Justice Department alleges that President Obiang’s ...	US Department of Justice
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28/02/2011	Timber Trafficking and Laundering: An Anti-Corruption Approach The trade in illegal timber and timber products leads to massive economic losses and environmental damage ...	Transparency International
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17/06/2010	The Globalization of Crime: A Transnational Organized Crime Threat Assessment This report by UNODC shows how organised crime has globalized and turned into one of the world's ...	UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)
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01/03/2010	Following the Proceeds of Illegal Logging in Indonesia The low number of prosecutions in Indonesia for illegal logging may not offer a strong enough deterrent ...	Australian Institute of Criminology - Trends and Issues in Criminal Justice series
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01/08/2006	Strengthening Forest Law Enforcement and Governance: Addressing a systemic constraint to sustainable development This report arises from the need to take stock of both the Bank's efforts in the arena of forest ...	World Bank
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01/10/2004	Money Laundering and Illegal Logging - Application of UK Legislation Anti money-laundering legislation in EU member states has been suggested as one solution that could be ...	DFID (Hugh Speechly)
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01/10/2004	Illegal Logging and Money Laundering: Analysis of the questionnaire to EU member states Background paper for the workshop on illegal logging and money laundering held in Berlin, September/October ...	Chatham House/RIIA (Duncan Brack)
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13/03/2004	Legal Opinion: In the matter of illegal logging and the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 Matrix Chambers were comissioned to provide a legal opinion of whether the UK Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 ...	Matrix Chambers (Tim Owen QC and Charlotte Kilroy)
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19/02/2004	RIIA Research on Money Laundering It has been proposed that recent improvements in money laundering legislation may allow for the capture ...	Chatham House/RIIA (Duncan Brack and Jade Saunders)
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17/09/2003	Indonesian Money Laundering Bill Could Help to Save Forests The Center for International Forestry Research welcomes decision by the Indonesian Govt to include crimes ...	CIFOR
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05/09/2003	Sources of investment for forestry: preventing flows of finance to illegal activities This paper was prepared for the international workshop on 'Sources of investment for forestry: preventing ...	Chatham House/RIIA (Jan Willem van Gelder, Wolfgang Richert and Eric Wakker)
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NEWS

DATE	TITLE	AUTHOR
18/05/2013	Money-Laundering Body Confident of Papua Cop Evidence The national money-laundering watchdog says it can prove that a low-ranking Papua police officer was ...	Jakarta Globe
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02/04/2013	Insight: In Malaysia's election, a focus on rainforest graft The island of Borneo may be all that stands between Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak and an unprecedented ...	Reuters (US)
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10/12/2012	UNODC: Break links between illegal timber trade, corruption and transnational organized crime Jakarta - Environmental crimes – often financed and organized by transnational organized criminal ...	Tempointeractive
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05/10/2012	Billions of dollars lost each year to illegal logging The joint [UNEP/Interpol] report, called Green ...	Voice of America
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11/09/2012	Interpol clamps down on illegal logging The illegal logging industry is worth almost as much as drug production, according to the international ...	BBC News
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02/09/2012	Musa on radar of Swiss money-laundering probe Kota Kinabalu - A Swiss investigations into a money-laundering trail with its roots in the rainforests ...	Free Malaysia Today
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31/08/2012	Swiss probe UBS over alleged Malaysia money-laundering Swiss prosecutors have opened a criminal money laundering probe into UBS after an environmental campaign ...	Reuters
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14/06/2012	New documents detail alleged grand corruption of "playboy" Deputy Prime Minister Teodoring Obiang Nguema of Equatorial Guinea By Robert Palmer-Globalwitness A new ...	Nigeria News
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12/06/2012	Swiss public prosecutor asked to charge UBS over laundering of Borneo logging corruption proceeds Zurich, Switzerland - Swiss bank UBS is likely to face criminal proceedings over its business ties with ...	Bruno Manser Fund, Switzerland
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12/06/2012	A desperate effort to save the rainforest of Borneo The once-magnificent tropical forests of Borneo have been decimated by rampant logging and clearing for ...	Yale Environment 360
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04/06/2012	NGOs demand UN sanctions against Malaysia In a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, 21 NGOs from nine countries are calling on the United ...	Bruno Manser Fund, Switzerland
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03/05/2012	Swiss MP questions UBS' role in Malaysian timber corruption scandal Berne, Switzerland - Carlo Sommaruga, social democrat MP for Geneva, has today filed a number of questions ...	Bruno Manser Fund, Switzerland
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28/04/2012	Peru announces climate change initiative —as illegal logging soars Peru announced April 26 that it will implement its own climate change initiative, in light of the continued ...	World War 4 Report
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22/04/2012	Swiss authorities confirm money-laundering investigation against UBS, Malaysian top politician Bern/Zurich, Switzerland - The Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland has confirmed on Friday ...	Bruno Manser Fund, Switzerland
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17/04/2012	Drug traffickers take note of Peru's illegal timber trade Timber traffickers in Peru have built a huge logistical network for bribing officials and moving illegally ...	InSight Crime, US / Colombia
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15/03/2012	Africa: 'Dirty money' in illegal logging can be tracked and confiscated, says World Bank report Washington — Every two seconds, an area of forest the size of a football field is clear-cut by ...	allAfrica.com
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12/12/2011	Malaysian prosecutors asked to arrest the Sarawak Chief Minister In a letter to Malaysia's Attorney General (AG), the Chief Commissioner of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption ...	Bruno Manser Fund, Switzerland
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07/12/2011	Canadian property developer Sakto admits Taib involvement – BMF maintains money-laundering allegations Ottawa, Canada - J Bruce Carr-Harris, an Ottawa top lawyer who is representing Jamilah Taib Murray, the ...	World-Wire
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08/06/2011	Amazon wood ejected from High Line Section 2 of the High Line park officially opened on Wednesday morning, June 8th, 2011, with a notable ...	Rainforests of New York / Rainforest Relief
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23/10/2010	Green crime cost is billions, report says Pollution, illegal logging and wildlife smuggling are now parts of a multibillion-dollar international ...	The Sydney Morning Herald, Australia
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15/07/2010	The drug destruction of Mexico Beyond the human carnage of Mexico’s drug conflict, another innocent bystander — the environment ...	Miller-McCune
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30/06/2010	‘Follow the money’ in forest crimes Indonesia’s failure to slow illegal logging stems from weaknesses in the 1999 Law on Forestry, ...	The Jakarta Post
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17/06/2010	International criminal markets have become major centres of power, UNODC report shows A report released today by UNODC shows how organized crime has globalized and turned into one of the ...	UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)
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28/04/2010	Indonesia chafes at graft 'safe haven' in Singapore Jakarta - Singapore promotes itself as a model of financial integrity. But, officials in Jakarta say, ...	mysinchew.com
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28/04/2010	Forest of problems hinders illegal logging fight The illegal logging cases in Riau in 2008 are an indicator of widespread forestry-related crimes in a ...	The Jakarta Globe
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22/12/2009	Commission to call up 62 judges over ‘iffy’ rulings The Judicial Commission will summon 62 judges, out of the country’s total 6,300, for questioning ...	The Jakarta Post
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30/11/2009	Destruction of Indonesia’s forests will be stopped by reform, not money At last there is an equal amount of money on the side of good that can compete with the forces of evil,” ...	The Jakarta Globe
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30/08/2009	Police detain four illegal loggers The National Police this past weekend detained four of twelve suspects believed to be part of a wood-smuggling ...	The Jakarta Globe
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01/06/2009	World's most wanted living in Australia They are 16 of the world's most wanted killers, sex predators, and fraudsters - and police suspect ...	The Daily Telegraph, Australia
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11/02/2006	World Money Laundering Report Unveils New Sponsor NetEconomy will press its message home to banks, insurance companies and others - with a groundbreaking ...	Media Syndicate
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17/01/2004	More Paper Action on Money Laundering Indonesia - The government's anti-money laundering authorities are moving to consolidate coordination ...	Laksamana.Net
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17/09/2003	Indonesian Government's new money laundering laws can helps save Indonesia's forests (Bogor, Indonesia): The Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) welcomes yesterday’s ...	CIFOR
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PRESENTATIONS

DATE	TITLE	AUTHOR
23/06/2009	Follow the money approach in preventing & combating illegal logging	Dr Gunadi, Deputy Head of INTRAC/PPATK
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24/03/2006	Current status of laws in Indonesia	IWGFF (Willem Pattinasarany)
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24/03/2006	Stopping illegal logging with a financial approach: Indonesian working group on forest finance	IWGFF (Willem Pattinasarany)
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18/03/2004	Money laundering offences: Proceeds of Crime Act 2002	Matrix Chambers (Tim Owen QC and Charlotte Kilroy)
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EVENTS

DATE	TITLE
Wednesday 16th November 2005	Workshop on Fighting Illegal Logging through Implementation of Anti Money Laundering Laws The workshop brought together participants from a range of Indonesian agencies (PPATK, Ministry of Forestry, ...
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Thursday 2nd December 2004	Illegal Logging Update and Stakeholder Consultation Number 5 The fifth in a series of policy update meetings hosted by Chatham House and funded by DFID. The meeting ...
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Thursday 30th September 2004	EU Expert Workshop: Illegal Logging and Measures to Combat Money Laundering The governments of Germany and of the Netherlands - the latter as EU presidency - jointly invited EU ...
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Thursday 29th July 2004	Discussion meeting: Money laundering and illegal logging Following the discussion meeting 'Capturing the Profits of Illegal Logging' in March 2004 on ...
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Thursday 17th June 2004	Illegal Logging Update and Stakeholder Consultation Number 4 The fourth in a regular series of meetings hosted by Chatham House and funded by DFID. The meeting covered ...
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Thursday 18th March 2004	Discussion Meeting: Capturing the Profits of Illegal Logging The meeting was convened to explore the possibility of using recent UK anti-money laundering legislation ...
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