Lawyer for Money Laundering in Madrid
We are lawyers specialising in money laundering in Madrid and membership in organised criminal groups. At the law firm “Granda y Asociados”, we have handled the most important Italian mafia case in Spain of the last forty years, the “Polverino” case, specifically taking on the defence in a money laundering offence.
The best lawyer to defend you against money laundering charges
Both national and European legislation have introduced new measures to control the impact of money laundering offences on the economy.
The Criminal Code regulates the offence of money laundering in Article 301.1, which establishes that this offence consists of acquiring, possessing, using, converting or transferring assets, knowing that these assets originate from criminal activity, whether committed by the person carrying out such acts or by any other person. It also penalises any other act carried out either to conceal or disguise their unlawful origin, or to assist any person who has participated in the offence in avoiding the legal consequences arising from their actions.
El delito se castiga con una pena de prisión de seis meses a seis años y con multa del tanto al triplo, del valor de los bienes.
However, judges or courts, taking into account the offender’s personal circumstances and the seriousness of the offence, may also impose a special disqualification from exercising their profession or business (1 to 3 years) and may order the closure, either permanent or temporary, of the establishment/premises. Where the closure is temporary, its duration may not exceed five years.
If the origin of the assets is linked to drug trafficking offences, narcotics or psychotropic substances (Articles 368 to 372 of the Criminal Code), the penalty shall be imposed in its upper half and the provisions of Article 374 of the Criminal Code shall apply.
Money laundering legislation
If the origin of the assets relates to offences under Chapters V, VI, VII, VIII, IX and X of Title XIX or Chapter I of Title XVI, the penalty shall be imposed in its upper half.
In Section 2 of Article 301 of the Criminal Code, what is known as successive money laundering is set out, and it is punished with the same penalties as in the previous section. It consists of acts intended to conceal or disguise the true nature, origin, source, location, movement or ownership rights of assets or property, provided that the person knows that such assets derive from any of the offences referred to in Section 1 of this Article or from their participation in such offences.
The above acts shall be punished with a lesser penalty (imprisonment from 6 months to 2 years and a fine of one to three times the amount involved) if committed through serious negligence, as provided for in Section 3 of this Article.
It is important to note that even if the offence from which the assets derive, or the acts punishable under the sections set out above, are committed abroad, the individual will still be liable to punishment (Section 4 of Article 301 of the Criminal Code).
Section 5 of the same Article provides that, where the offender has obtained profits, these shall be confiscated in accordance with the provisions of Article 127 of the Criminal Code.
On numerous occasions, doubts have arisen regarding the difference between the offence of handling stolen goods (Article 298 of the Criminal Code) and money laundering. The most significant difference between them is that, although both require a prior offence, in the offence of handling stolen goods the predicate offence must always be a crime against property, and its main purpose is to prevent the offender or a third party from benefiting from the goods, for which an intent to gain is also required.
It should be noted that this offence may be committed not only by natural persons, but also that criminal liability is recognised for legal entities.
