| The criminalization of self-money laundering is an important measure to improve China’s anti-money laundering system and is of great significance in effectively combating money laundering crimes.As the criminal law includes the perpetrator of the predicate offence as the subject of the money laundering offence,the question arises as to how the predicate offender should be punished for money laundering for oneself after having committed the predicate offence,that is,the determination of the number of crimes of the predicate crime and the crime of self-laundering.There have been different judgments on similar cases in practice,and there is also considerable controversy in criminal law theory.At present,there is a lack of judicial interpetations and guiding cases to resolve this difficult issue,so it is necessary to discuss the determination of the number of self-money laundering crimes and predicate offences.By reviewing the relevant literature and collating cases related to money laundering crimes,it is found that there are two main views on the determination of the number of crimes between self-money laundering crimes and predicate offence crimes,namely,the theory of punishment from one felony and the theory of concurrent punishment for several offences,but both of these views have their own shortcomings.In order to accurately identify the relationship between the crimes of money laundering for oneself and the predicate offences,it is firstly necessary to define the act of self-money laundering,which is different from the traditional criminal act of laundering stolen good,but is an act capable of disrupting the order of financial management and legitimising the source and nature of the proceeds of the predicate offence and its proceeds by changing them.Secondly,it is clear that the act of self-money laundering is not the afterwards act of impunity,nor can the possibility of expectation be used as a super-legal deterrent to liability to achieve the effect of non-independent evaluation.The act of self-money laundering and the predicate offence satisfy the constitutive elements of several offences,which should be established in the form of several offences.Finally,in conjunction with the principles of adequate evaluation,prohibition of repeated evaluation and compatibility of crime and punishment,it is argued that self-laundering is not a natural extension of the predicate offence,nor is it a necessary consequence of the predicate offence,and that the legal interest it infringes cannot be included and evaluated by the predicate offence,and therefore there is no implication or absorption relationship between it and the predicate offence.In the determination of the number of offences,it should be argued separately according to the different circumstances.When the offence of self-money laundering occurs after the predicate offence and they are two separate acts,then the offences should be combined punished;when the offence of self-money laundering occurs at the same time as the predicate offence and it is an integral part of the predicate offence,then an imaginary competition arises and should be punished as a felony. |
