Amity Law School, Amity University Haryana was organized a Guest Lecture on Money Laundering and its Impact on Economy by Mr. Karnal Singh, Former Chief of Enforcement Directorate, India on 16 September 2020.
Mr. Karnal Singh started the Lecture by addressing the issue of Money Laundering and identifying various reasons behind individuals and companies indulging in such economic offences. Mr. Singh stated that Money Laundering, a concept originated in the United States in 1980s, refers to the conversion of money which has been illegally obtained, in such a way that it appears to originated from a legitimate source. He informed the participants that there are several methods of committing the act of Money Laundering through Shell Companies, Front Companies, by using financial instruments of various nations, international trade based laundering and others. He suggested that there are three stages of Money Laundering namely, placement, layering and integration.
Further, he commented that a large number of countries have been functioning towards curbing the menace of Money Laundering by bringing in stringent Agreements, Conventions and Action Groups such as UN Convention of 1988, Basel Statement of Principles, 1989, Financial Action Task Force (FATF) created in 1989 and UN Convention of 2001 against Transnational Organized Crime (Palermo Convention) etc.
He further discussed a number of cases and scams that he had worked on and investigated during his tenure at Enforcement Directorate such as the 2G scam, the National Herald case, the Vijay Mallya scam, the Aircel-Maxis and INX Media case involving Mr. P Chidambaram and his son, Karti Chidambaram, the PNB scam involving Nirav Modi, the Augusta Westland chopper scam, case involving NCP leader Chaggan Bhujbal and many more. He spoke in detail on matters relating to extradition of persons accused of Money Laundering and the jurisdictional issues connected therewith.
Mr. Singh then explained that the launderers use multiple channels to launder money and the most commonly used technique for entering ill-gotten wealth into system is banking sector and real estate.
At the end, during the Question-Answer Session Mr. Singh addressed many queries raised by the Faculty Members as well as the students on impacts of Money Laundering, crypto-currency issues, extradition and jurisdictional concerns.