Offence of money laundering

(1) A person commits the offence of money laundering if the person knowing or having reasonable grounds to believe that any property in whole or in part, directly or indirectly, represents any person’s proceeds of crime– (a) converts or transfers that property for the purpose of concealing or disguising the illicit origin of the property or of assisting any person who is involved in the commission of the crime to evade the legal consequences of his action; (b) conceals or disguises the true nature, source, location, disposition, movement, rights with respect to or ownership of that property; (c) acquires, possesses, uses or otherwise deals with that property; or (d) participates in, associates with or conspires to commit, attempts to commit, or aids and abets, or facilitates, counsels or procures the commission of any of the above acts. (1A) A person is not guilty of an offence under sub-section (1) if– (a) he makes an authorised disclosure and, if the disclosure is made before he does the act specified in sub-section (1), he has the appropriate consent; (b) he intended to make such a disclosure but had a reasonable excuse for not doing so; or 32[CAP. 104 Money Laundering and Terrorism (Prevention) (c) the act he does is done in carrying out a function he has relating to the enforcement of any provision of this Act or of any other provision of criminal law or of law relating to the proceeds of crime or terrorist financing. (1B) A disclosure by a person is an authorised disclosure if– (a) it is a disclosure made to the Financial Intelligence Unit that property is, or may be, the proceeds of crime; and (b) one of the following conditions is satisfied– (i) the person makes the disclosure before he does the act specified in sub-section (1); or (ii) the person makes the disclosure while he is doing the act specified in sub- section (1), he began to do the act at a time when, because he did not know or suspect that the property constituted or represented a person’s benefit from criminal conduct, the act was not an act specified in sub-section (1), and the disclosure is made on his own initiative and as soon as is practicable after he first knows or suspects that the property constitutes or represents the proceeds of crime; or (c) the person makes the disclosure after he does the act specified in sub-section (1), and there is good reason for his failure to make the disclosure before he did the act and the disclosure is made on his own initiative and as soon as it is practicable for him to make it. (1C) The appropriate consent is, where a person makes a disclosure to the Financial Intelligence Unit, the consent of the Financial Intelligence Unit to do the act specified in sub-section (1). (1D) A person is deemed to have the appropriate consent if– (a) he makes an authorised disclosure to the Financial Intelligence Unit; and (b) either– (i) the Financial Intelligence Unit does not, on or before the expiry of 7 working days commencing with the first working day after the person makes the disclosure, notify the person that consent to do the act specified in sub- section (1) is refused; or (ii) on or before the expiry of the period referred to in sub-paragraph (i), he receives notice from the Financial Intelligence Unit that consent to do the act specified in sub-section (1) is refused and 30 days have expired since the day on which the person received notice that consent to do the act is refused. (2) For the purpose of proving a money laundering offence under sub-section (1) it is sufficient to prove that– (a) the property was derived from conduct of a specific kind or kinds and that conduct is unlawful; or (b) the circumstances in which the property was handled were such as to give rise to 34[CAP. 104 Money Laundering and Terrorism (Prevention) an irresistible inference that the property could only be derived from unlawful conduct.