Money-laundering is where a person deals with cash or assets knowing or suspecting that they, or the original source of funds, were obtained by criminal activity.
The purpose of money-laundering is to conceal the criminal source of funds, or to move funds out of reach of the relevant prosecutors or courts.
Examples:
A government official receives cash as a bribe and pays it into an offshore bank account in the name of a relative.
A finance manager of an organisation embezzles money from his organisation. He purchases a house in another country with the money.
A sub-contractor submits a fraudulent claim to a contractor for work which it did not carry out. The contractor pays the amount of the fraudulent claim into the sub-contractor’s bank account with Bank A. The sub-contractor then moves the payment to Bank B.
Avoiding money laundering:
Do not deal with any money or other asset which you know or suspect may wholly or partly be the proceeds of a crime.
If you know or suspect that an activity involves money laundering, then avoid or withdraw from the activity and do not assist it in any way.