Criminal Money Laundering: s. 462.31

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This blog post outlines criminal money laundering under s. 462.31 of the Criminal Code. It was written by Addison Cameron-Huff, a lawyer who specializes in Bitcoin. He highly recommends that you seek legal advice when considering issues related to criminal money laundering.

 

Criminal money laundering is a serious offence and can result in a ten year jail sentence. The offence for “laundering proceeds of crime” is found in s. 462.31 of the Criminal Code:

 

“462.31 (1) Every one commits an offence who uses, transfers the possession of, sends or delivers to any person or place, transports, transmits, alters, disposes of or otherwise deals with, in any manner and by any means, any property or any proceeds of any property with intent to conceal or convert that property or those proceeds, knowing or believing that all or a part of that property or of those proceeds was obtained or derived directly or indirectly as a result of

 

(a) the commission in Canada of a designated offence; or

(b) an act or omission anywhere that, if it had occurred in Canada, would have constituted a designated offence.”

Criminal Code, R.S.C. 1985, c. C-46, s. 462.31

 

The term “designated offence” in s. 462.31 means:

”(a) any offence that may be prosecuted as an indictable offence under this or any other Act of Parliament, other than an indictable offence prescribed by regulation, or

(b) a conspiracy or an attempt to commit, being an accessory after the fact in relation to, or any counselling in relation to, an offence referred to in paragraph (a);”

Criminal Code, R.S.C. 1985, c. C-46, s. 462.3(1)

 

The punishment for violating s. 462.31 is up to ten years in jail (s. 462.31(2)(a)).

 

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