Title: Money laundering and financial means of organised crime: some preliminary empirical findings

Authors: Friedrich Schneider

Addresses: Johannes Kepler University of Linz, Altenbergerstrasse 69, A-4040 Linz-Auhof, Austria

Abstract: After giving a short literature review, the paper attempts a quantification of the volume of money laundering activities, with the help of a MIMIC (Multiple Indicators Multiple Causes) estimation procedure, for the years 1995 to 2006 for 20 highly developed OECD countries. The volume of laundered money was US$273 billion in the year 1995 for these 20 OECD countries and increased to US$603 billion in 2006. The overall turnover in organised crime had a value of US$595 billion in 2001 and increased to US$790 billion in 2006. These figures are very preliminary but give a clear indication of how important money laundering and the turnover of organised crime is nowadays.

Keywords: money laundering definition; money laundering stages; money laundering volume; MIMIC estimation; financial means; organised crime.

DOI: 10.1504/GBER.2008.019986

Global Business and Economics Review, 2008 Vol.10 No.3, pp.309 - 330

Published online: 20 Aug 2008 *

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