In the past twenty years action in respect of the profits of crime has moved rapidly up the criminal justice agenda. Not only may confiscation orders be made, but there are also now serious substantive criminal offences of laundering the proceeds of crime. Moreover, the consequences of the regulatory régimes put in place by the Money Laundering Regulations 1993 and the Financial Services Authority are very significant. This book examines critically the history, theory and practice of all these developments, culminating in the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, which marks another step in the move towards greater concentration both on the financial aspects of crime and on the internationalisation of criminal law. The Act puts in place the Assets Recovery Agency, which will be central to the strategy of targeting criminal monies and will have power to bring forfeiture proceedings without a prior criminal conviction and to raise assessments to taxation. The author subjects the law of laundering, especially the novel aspects of the Proceeds of Crime Act itself, to thorough analysis and a human rights' audit.

Contents: Introduction; The Economics of Money Laundering; Theory: Justifications for Forfeiture, Confiscation, and Criminalisation; History of Forfeiture and Confiscation Provisions; The International Dimension; Forfeiture Provisions; Statutory Confiscation Provisions; Investigatory Powers; Beyond Confiscation - Criminalisation; Acquisition and Deployment of Money for Terrorism; Confiscation without Conviction - 'Civil Recovery'; Money Laundering and the Professions