The literal meaning of laundering is washing or cleaning dirty
clothes.
The term Money Laundering is used for cleaning dirty money. It
is the disguising or concealing of illicit income in order to make
it appear legitimate.
Money Laundering is being employed by launderers worldwide to
conceal criminal activity associated with it such as drugs / arms
trafficking, terrorism and extortion.
Article 1 of EC Directive on Prevention of the use of the
Financial System for the Purpose of Money Laundering, 1991 defines
the term 'money laundering' as "the conversion of
property, knowing that such property is derived from serious crime,
for the purpose of concealing or disguising the illicit origin of
the property or of assisting any person who is involved in
committing such an offence or offences to evade the legal
consequences of his action, and the concealment or disguise of the
true nature, source, location, disposition, movement, rights with
respect to, or ownership of
