Purpose

Money laundering and grand business corruption continue to plague the global economy, accounting for 2%-5% of the global gross domestic product. Illicit funds, produced through grand corruption, are laundered using complex layering schemes that cloak them in legitimacy by concealing their origins. Lamentably, weak anti-money laundering (AML) frameworks promote economic instability, unjust commercial advantages and organized crimes. This study aims to highlight the need for comprehensive anti-corruption and AML frameworks by critiquing the exploitable gaps in the global AML regime created by heterogeneous state-level AML regimes to date.

Design/methodology/approach

This study welcomes the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) and the financial action task force (FATF) recommendations but underscores the limitations of their effectiveness by investigating state-level enforcement mechanisms to determine these instruments’ true impact or lack thereof. The mutual evaluation reports (MERs) and state-level AML regimes in the UK, the USA and Canada are analyzed to illustrate the distinct implementation of international soft law in domestic legislation.

Findings

This study finds that UNCAC and the FATF recommendations are pivotal steps towards the establishment of a global AML regime for international business, albeit, one that remains imperfect because of the inconsistency of state-level AML frameworks. Consequently, international cooperation is needed to navigate and improve the discrepancies in varied AML legislation.

Originality/value

The author provides an in-depth and balanced analysis of current state-level AML developments and relies upon the recent 2016-2018 MERs to indicate the successes and flaws of various AML legislation. Therefore, this critique may guide stakeholders to construct robust AML frameworks and contributes to academic research in AML.

中文翻译：

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在打击国际商业交易中的洗钱方面是否有值得称赞的制度？

目的

洗钱和大企业腐败继续困扰着全球经济，占全球国内生产总值的2％-5％。通过大腐败产生的非法资金使用复杂的分层计划进行洗钱，这些计划通过掩盖其来源掩盖其合法性。可悲的是，薄弱的反洗钱框架加剧了经济不稳定，不公正的商业利益和有组织的犯罪。这项研究旨在通过质疑迄今为止由不同的州级反洗钱制度造成的全球反洗钱制度中的可利用的空白，来强调对综合反腐败和反洗钱框架的需求。

设计/方法/方法

这项研究欢迎《联合国反腐败公约》（UNCAC）和金融行动特别工作组（FATF）的建议，但通过调查州一级的执法机制以确定这些文书的真正影响或缺乏影响，强调了其效力的局限性。对英国，美国和加拿大的互评报告（MERs）和州级反洗钱制度进行了分析，以说明国际软法在国内立法中的独特实施。

发现

这项研究发现，UNCAC和FATF的建议是迈向为国际业务建立全球反洗钱制度的关键步骤，尽管由于州级反洗钱框架的不统一，这一制度仍不完善。因此，需要国际合作来解决和改善各种反洗钱立法中的差异。

创意/价值

作者对当前州级反洗钱的发展进行了深入，均衡的分析，并依靠最近的2016-2018 MERs指出了各种反洗钱立法的成败。因此，这种批评可以指导利益相关者构建强大的反洗钱框架，并为反洗钱的学术研究做出贡献。