MAKING CRIME PAY_IT ALL MAKES CENTS

Part II

Money Laundering ‐ the offence includes concealing, disguising, transferring, receiving, bringing into or removing from T&T money or other property knowing or suspecting that the money or other property was obtained from a specified offence. This definition can be found in section 43 of the Proceeds of Crime Act - 55 of 2000 (as amended). The Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA) represents a powerful opportunity to substantially disrupt and deter criminality. For all intents and purposes the POCA is utilitarian in the approach to crime and punishment. The nature of utilitarianism is such that one ought to act so as to produce the best consequences possible. According to the utilitarian theories of punishment, utilitarian justifications are consequential in nature. For many years, law enforcement has been targeting major drug dealers – attacking both supply and demand but predominantly the former – and yet those criminals’ methods of operating remains a challenge.  

Cash is absolutely central to illegal drugs activity therefore, protecting cash has become almost as important as concealing the illegal commodity being smuggled. In this regard, while it is important to tackle the top-level criminals, it can also be highly effective to target those lower down the pecking order since they are both more accessible to general law enforcement agencies and the impact of disruption or detection can be more visible to both the criminal fraternity and the wider community. At all levels successful criminals who are seen to be living lives of relative luxury, act as dysfunctional role models for their peers and juniors. Thus preventing overt criminals from living off the proceeds of crime can deter impressionable young people from entering or expanding their involvement in criminality.  The pursuit and recovery of the proceeds of crime can make a significant contribution to crime reduction and to the creation of a safe and just society.

The questions about the justification of punishment (general justification, title and severity) are addressed by appeal to the utility (value) of the consequences of an action. According to this theory, a system of punishment is justified only by its consequences. The good consequences of punishment are usually said to be the promotion of utility (happiness/pleasure/desire satisfaction) through the reduction in crime, therefore the justification will only work for systems where reducing behavior classified as criminal will promote utility. Systems of punishment are usually claimed to reduce crime by three means:

• Deterrence (either special or general) - the reduction in crime as a result of making crime too costly to the would-be criminal—“pricing” crime too high. The individual deterred may still desire to commit the crime in question but will not do so given the likelihood and severity of punishment. 
• Incapacitation: the removal of the opportunity or ability of the potential criminal to commit criminal acts (sometimes only of a certain sort). 
• Rehabilitation (Reform): Rehabilitation takes place when the character of the person being punished is altered so that he or she no longer desires to commit the sort of act for which he or she was punished.

In order to correlate and apply the principles of utilitarianism to the proceeds of crime at least three key public interest factors would be pertinent:

• The importance of making it more difficult for criminals to legitimise their ill-gotten gains;
• The importance of deterring professional launderers;
• The importance of protecting the integrity of financial institutions domestically and internationally.

Money laundering facilitates crime by rendering it profitable; it provides domestic and transnational organised crime with a cash flow to perpetrate further crimes and threatens the financial system and its institutions, both domestic and international. There is now a dire need to enact responsive anti-money laundering legislation in Trinidad and Tobago. This effort should result in a strengthening of existing financial regulatory systems and increase investor’s confidence, two important precursors to economic reform and global investment activities.