Role of Banks in Combating Money Laundry Crimes in the Yemeni Law

Abstract

In fact, money laundering was not criminalized by the Yemeni legislation and other legislators in many countries, as criminalization was confined to illegal activities that results in illegal money subject to laundering. Hence, because of the danger of money laundering on economic, security, political and social aspects, it became necessary to put in place a special legislation to criminalize such activity and punish the perpetrator.

This terminology has been circulated in all local, regional and international forums interested in economic crimes because of the new world order called globalization, which led to liberalizing markets, increase mobility of economic activity, freeing foreign trade and capital transfer between countries without financial and administrative restrictions.

This phenomenon has been accompanied by an influx of funds resulting from illegal activities that the perpetrators seek to hide their source to avoid confiscation, by carrying out fictitious economic activities. Such activity poses a great threat to local and international investment and harms the credibility of well-known economic foundations. Reliance to detect those crimes was focused primarily on the banks in which the movement of those funds revolved. Therefore, the aim of this study is to clarify the role of banks in monitoring money laundering and methods of its control, and indicate the most appropriate legal means to punish money laundering in light of the relevant laws. At the end, the study provided a number of conclusions and recommendations.