A Comparative Study of the Money Laundering Laws/Regulations in Nigeria, the United States and the United Kingdom

The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Recommendations set out a comprehensive and consistent framework of measures that countries should implement in order to combat money laundering, terrorist financing and financing of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Although countries have followed the advice of the FATF by enacting laws that require financial institutions and designated non-financial businesses and professions (DNFBPs) to implement certain measures that can combat money laundering and terrorist financing, the approaches adopted in these different countries are not identical. This book compares the approaches adopted in Nigeria, the United States and the United Kingdom in relation to reporting requirements, money laundering offences, politically exposed persons, cash couriers, compliance officers, offences of bribery, confiscation measures, customer due-diligence measures, record keeping and level of compliance. The aim of this comparison is to determine what the best approach is—the one that strikes a fair balance between protecting the financial system against money launderers and upholding equality before the law. This book relies mainly on primary and secondary data drawn from the public domain. It also relies on documentary research. The book engages with issues that many either oversimplify or avoid altogether. It admirably met the challenge of reconciling legal, jurisdictional and operational issues akin to money laundering. Of course, full or actual reconciliation is not always possible. Creating an understanding of the complexity of language to help ‘finders of fact’ register this as a genuine vocational and workable anti–money laundering commodity and professional resource was but one crucial challenge ably achieved. One cannot reduce issues of law and acquisitive financial crime to a state of simplicity that does not exist. Equally, money laundering, being such an amorphous entity as a crime, is arguably de facto immeasurable in a full and real sense. Many texts address specific points of reference and requisite money laundering criminality, but here we see a splendidly holistic approach to presenting answers to the questions it poses. Writing a widely acceptable book on the massive issue of money laundering and the fragmented state of the law across key jurisdictions—as in Nigeria, the United Kingdom and the United States of America—needs order and method, as well as a flexible and running thread to connect cohesion and meaning to it all. This book provides this. The comparatives and overlaps are well presented and neatly contextualized to keep them proportionate. The highest quality grasp of legal theory resonates throughout. Current challenges are clear, and future remedies and workable answers and methods and polices are explained or hinted at. The book encourages conceptual thought as well as finite and robust guidance for learning. In essence, what we have in this superb text is clarity and not mere description of the challenges and issues it addresses. Therefore you, as either a fellow professional or an infrequent but interested observer of money laundering, knowing what money laundering is, how it has advanced more than ever with new ways, what it causes and how we attempt to govern this massive spectre of crime legally and operationally, cannot help but benefit from this book—whatever your vocation or whatever part you have in combating it.