The Three Stages Of Money Laundering

Through money laundering, criminals fund and profit from illicit activity such as arms sales, narcotics, human trafficking, contraband smuggling, embezzlement, insider trading, bribery, and fraud schemes.

In addition to organized criminal groups, professional money launderers perform money laundering services on behalf of others as their core business.

The scale of money laundering globally is difficult to assess. Still, a widely quoted figure from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) estimates that money laundering schemes cost 2-5% of the world's total GDP – an estimated $2 trillion.

There are typically three stages of the money laundering process to release laundered funds into the legal financial system.