International Responses to Corruption and Money Laundering

Abstract

If the number and variety of global and regional efforts to counter corruption and money laundering were anything to go by, it might be assumed that these problems had been consigned to the past. On the other hand, the fact that corruption and money laundering are still with us, and perhaps even more widespread than a decade ago, may lead to the depressing verdict that all the conventions, treaties, action plans, and so on are little more than ineffectual window dressing, the plenaries, conferences, and seminars just irrelevant talk shops. In fact, however, neither extreme, the heights of dizzying optimism or the depths of crushing pessimism, is warranted. While it is hard to match the growth in international initiatives to combat these financial crimes against any definitive yardsticks of progress, this chapter argues that it is vital to appreciate the nature and scope of international cooperation in this arena. The new frameworks, globally and in the Asia-Pacific region, provide new opportunities to deter, detect, and apprehend corrupt officials and money launderers. These legal and policy innovations are responses to a moving target: as financial deregulation and technological change have advanced, so too have criminals found it easier to use the international financial system to hide and launder their illicit gains.