Money Laundering in Canada

Some authorities, including the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), have found that money laundering is often related to organized criminal and/or terrorist activity. In recent years, the issue of money laundering has been highlighted as an emerging problem both in Canada and internationally. In Canada, it is estimated that the amount of money laundered on an annual basis is somewhere between $5 and $15 billion. Worldwide, it has been estimated that this figure may be $900 billion to $2.25 trillion (RCMP – Money Laundering, 2011).

According to the Criminal Code, money laundering, also referred to as laundering proceeds of crime, occurs when an individual or group uses, transfers, sends, delivers, transports, transmits, alters, disposes of or otherwise deals with, any property or proceeds of any property that was obtained as a result of criminal activity. This is done with the intent to conceal or convert illegal assets into legitimate funds.

An example of money laundering would involve a person who sells illegal drugs, and then uses the profit to purchase legal goods to sell through a legitimate business. Previous research suggests that money laundering schemes are often associated with the illegal drug trade or the defrauding and manipulation of Canada’s financial institutions.

(To learn more, see the Statistics Canada website and the June 2011 publication Money laundering in Canada, 2009.)

Money Laundering and Terrorist Activity Financing Watch

The Money Laundering and Terrorist Activity Financing Watch presents a quarterly review of news articles summarizing relevant group-based, activity-based and country-based money laundering and terrorist activity financing issues, and alerts readers to new financial mechanisms or technologies that could possibly be exploited for money laundering or terrorist activity financing purposes in Canada. (Caveat: The content is a summary of news articles and does not include any FINTRAC analysis. The views expressed are those of the authors. FINTRAC is not responsible for the accuracy, currency or the reliability of the content. References are provided to the respective articles at the end of this document.)

Read: Money Laundering and Terrorist Activity Financing Watch:January-March 2011