Money laundering regulation and the African PEP: case for tougher civil remedy options
Abstract
Purpose
The high crimes of bribery and money laundering resonate vividly with the public, especially where politically exposed persons (PEPs) are involved. Conventional wisdom thus far, dictates the adoption of even stiffer criminal sanctions for perpetrators of such crimes to solidify deterrence. This paper contends that while this approach may be a viable option in respect of PEPs in Western jurisdictions, it is less so with PEPs in Africa, where their peculiar socio-legal antecedents have rendered the venomous arrow of criminal sanction a largely anodyne prickle. The paper further contends that only a paradigm shift away from criminal to tougher civil remedy options can effectively address the endemic incidents of a growing number of PEPs actively engaged in financial crime aimed at asset stripping the state for personal gain in Africa.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper juxtaposes empirical evidence from historical records with comparative regional and international approaches to establish some creative new thinking on the subject matter.
Findings
The paper makes an important, significant and persuasive argument for a kind of paradigm shift in the approach to fighting corruption by PEPs in Africa specifically …. It is quite creative in deciphering a major root cause of the ineffectiveness in most of Africa of criminal sanction as an anti-corruption weapon, and in pressing trust law and the principles of fiduciary obligation into the service of thinking through the reinvigoration of the legal battle against corruption in Africa.
Originality/value
The paper makes a significant original contribution to the legal and policy literature. The author also displays an impressively sound technical command of the relevant and rather pivotal trust law principles and case law.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The author is grateful to Messrs David Lewis, Head of Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorist Finance, Sanctions and Illicit Finance Team at the UK Treasury, and DCI Jon Benton, Head of the Metropolitan Police Financial Crimes Unit, for their insights during the author’s interviews with them for this paper; Professor Michelle Gallant, University of Manitoba, Canada, and Dr Mahmood Bagheri, Institute for Advanced Legal Studies (IALS), University of London, for their initial helpful comments on the paper, which started its journey as an LLM dissertation at IALS. Also, Professor Biko Agozino, Virginia-Tech University, USA, for his critique of the final draft of the paper. Last but not the least, the anonymous reviewers for their constructive engagement with the paper’s thesis. That said, responsibility for all errors and omissions in this work is entirely of the author.
Citation
Oke, T. (2016), "Money laundering regulation and the African PEP: case for tougher civil remedy options", Journal of Money Laundering Control, Vol. 19 No. 1, pp. 32-57. https://doi.org/10.1108/JMLC-01-2015-0001
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2016, Emerald Group Publishing Limited