Widening purview of the Money Laundering Act

The crime scene in the country has evolved over the decades, especially with the nation becoming connected via the Internet; virtual crimes from simple credit card fraud to complex and carefully veiled cybercrimes pose a danger to us all. In recent times, there have also been crimes related to illegal gambling, cyber casinos plus pornography.

As per a TBP report, the government has decided to bring casinos, pornographies, offline-online gambling, and cybercrimes under the ambit of the money laundering law to ensure stricter penalties for the offences.

The National Coordination Committee (NCC) on preventing money laundering and combating financing of terrorism recently tasked authorities concerned to work towards amending relevant acts for this purpose.

The committee has tasked the Financial Institutions Division (FID) and the Legislative and Parliamentary Affair Division to draw up a draft proposal for amending the Money Laundering Prevention Act, 2012. The recommended amendments include the inclusion of all kinds of gambling, cybercrimes and pornography as money laundering offences under the act.

The reason given is that if these crimes are covered by the Money Laundering Act then the punishment will be severe along with large fines.

The main objective for bringing a variety of crimes under one umbrella is to ensure the possibility of stronger penalties acting as a deterrent. But there is also a necessity to understand the crimes mentioned and how they can have connections to money laundering. Gambling at a lower level had always been present although the widespread gambling, especially the ones related to competitive sports, is a new menace. Unfortunately, the game of gentlemen, cricket, is the unwitting victim here, as matches, both domestic and international trigger a frenzy of online gambling involving millions in Taka and Dollar.

This money is later siphoned off thus the justification of bringing this misdeed under the act. Cyber vice is a vast area with the top crimes in 2022 including phishing scams, website spoofing, ransomware, malware and IOT hacking. These crimes will take personal data or mislead unsuspecting net users into spending money, which is usually taken outside the country.

As for pornography, it came to the knowledge of the local law enforcers a few years ago that a ring of porn makers operate within the country who take advantage of young people, compel them to take part in sexually explicit actions and then sell the recorded materials outside the country. In a more deviant form, unscrupulous video makers lure young boys and girls into posing nude which are then sold to pedophile rings.

Sexual crimes range from making conventional porn to manufacturing perverted materials and while these do not have direct links to money laundering, vague rules and loopholes in the legal system often permit the offenders to go free without major punishment.

The offenders usually show the willingness of actors in their productions to take part in intimate sessions for a monetary fee as a mitigating factor. In a time of global upheavals plus with two major sporting events, the cricket T20 and the World Cup football coming up, gambling online will see a marked escalation. Therefore, this act may prove to be an effective tool in dealing with gambling.

From another angle, the gambling addiction, whether it involves sport or conventional engagements like cards or the dice, has also affected the youth – a perturbing sociological development requiring immediate probe.

An act will work to prevent and punish but to understand the rise of vice, a profound sociological assessment is essential. A mercenary creed has crept in insidiously; this predatory culture needs proper discussion and deconstruction.