Clifford Chance
A decade of experience with the money laundering offence
29 December 2011
On 14 December 2011, the tenth anniversary of the entry into force of specific money laundering prohibitions in the Dutch Criminal Code ("DCC") was marked. Just two weeks before the conversion to the euro a new, broadly defined offence was implemented in the DCC to better facilitate law enforcement agencies in retrieving criminal cash proceeds that were expected to be forced to the surface in order to be exchanged into the new euro.
The Dutch Government had long resisted international pressure to criminalise the act of money laundering on the grounds that any such activities were already within the scope of existing offences. However, subsequent case law indicates that the newly introduced articles have provided a much used tool for national and international law enforcement in the Netherlands.
The attached client briefing, which was produced in close cooperation with our external advisor Joost Tonino, is a brief historical overview of the introduction of these provisions and their subsequent evolution in case law.
