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This paper aims to determine whether tax evasion savings qualify as unlawful proceeds for money laundering purposes. Litigators, regulators and academics have debated the question for decades. A common argument is that tax evasion allows a bad actor to save money that the perpetrator already has on hand. It does not produce a new inflow of wealth that could properly be classified as proceeds. This paper addresses the validity of this argument by using a substance-based approach.

This paper applies the substance-over-form principle and two specialized judicial doctrines to the matter: the economic-substance and step-transaction doctrines.

This paper finds that in substance, tax evasion savings qualify as unlawful proceeds. The opposing argument may be valid on the surface, but it does not withstand the scrutiny of the substance-based principle and insights from the doctrines.

The finding of this paper implies that any courts which value substance can embrace tax evasion savings as unlawful proceeds. Government prosecutors can adopt the position with confidence that substance backs them up. National regulators can push the point. The United Nations’ Financial Action Task Force can consider the option to more explicitly recommend treating tax evasion savings as unlawful proceeds for money laundering.

Using a unique substance-based approach, this paper demonstrates that a dollar of tax evasion savings is substantively equivalent to a dollar of unlawful tax refund proceeds for money laundering purposes. Focusing on an unlawful tax refund overcomes many of the common concerns raised against the treatment of tax evasion savings as unlawful proceeds.

This chapter offers a practitioners’ perspective on how Islamic banks in Malaysia deal with unlawful sources of funds. Specifically, it investigates the practice of Islamic banks in Malaysia in dealing with funds that originate from unlawful sources such as accepting deposits for safe-keeping and investment and providing financial facilities to customers whose incomes come from unlawful sources. This is regardless of whether the sources of fund are wholly unlawful or there is a mix of lawful and unlawful sources. A quantitative methodology is adopted to collect data from selected industry practitioners who are directly involved with Islamic banks, mainly officers of Sharīʿah departments, members of Sharīʿah committees and other stakeholders of Islamic banks. Based on a simple descriptive analysis, it is found that majority of the respondents opine that when the sources of funds are deemed unlawful, the bank cannot accept such deposits, investments or give financing to a customer if he or she is known to possess unlawful sources of funds. With respect to the mixed sources of funds or activities, that is, lawful and unlawful, the bank should not be prevented from receiving the funds either for safe-keeping, investment or payment of financing. The study also finds that banks have the right to investigate the sources of funds of the customers whether they are derived from Sharīʿah compliant, non-Sharīʿah compliant or mixed sources as part of the general due diligence implemented by such banks.

Money laundering and terrorism financing are financial crimes which affect the economic stability and integrity of the country. In this respect, the relevant regulator has a duty to preserve and protect the financial stability of the country. This duty is in line with the concept of the protection of wealth (hifz al-mal) under the maqāsid al-Sharīʿah or higher objectives of Islamic law framework. The objective of this chapter is to examine the protection of wealth vis-á-vis money laundering and terrorism financing from the maqāsid al-Sharīʿah perspective. This study analyses the primary and secondary legal sources on the laws and regulations on anti-money laundering and counter financing of terrorism while also considering the primary and secondary sources of Islamic law. This study is significant as it makes an exploration of the maqāsid al-Sharīʿah perspectives and discusses the position of unlawful wealth that is acquired from the illicit gain of property from the abuse of money laundering and the financing of terrorist activities. This chapter suggests that Islamic law emphasises on the lawful ownership of wealth and prohibits a person from acquiring illicit wealth. This study will contribute towards the study on the deployment of maqāsid al-Sharīʿah, which is beneficial in safeguarding an individual action as well as the country’s commitment against abuse and misuse of wealth for financial crimes.

The purpose of this study is to develop an Islamic corporate social responsibility (ICSR) model.

Based on Qur’anic verses and previous literature, the authors aim to develop an ICSR model with an extension of the corporate social responsibility (CSR) theory of Carroll (1979).

This study extends the theory of Carroll (1979) using an operational definition of CSR that encompasses the economic, legal, ethical and philanthropic dimensions of CSR from an Islamic perspective. This ICSR model is applicable to both Islamic and non-Islamic business systems because both Islamic and Western CSR have common humanitarian grounds.

The conceptual research is not tested in this article. Further, not all Islamic principles are integrated in this model.

Many Western theoreticians have attempted to offer theoretical, moral and ethical grounds for CSR initiatives. However, these attempts have been broadly criticized for problems relating to justification, conceptual clarity and possible inconsistency and for failing to provide adequate ethical guidance to business executives who must determine which course to pursue and their level of commitment. Therefore, there is a need to develop the concept of CSR, which has gained popularity and wide acceptance among the Western and Islamic business communities, especially from an Islamic perspective.

The paper aims to examine sales promotional practices in Ghana, weighing their ethical implications from an Islamic perspective and investigates whether they meet Islam's ethical requirements to merit Muslims' patronage.

The paper uses Qur'an 5:90/2:219 as a theoretical framework to analyze relevant data to ascertain the extent of ethical legitimacy of strategies used in sales promotion in Ghana and cites other relevant references from Qur'an and sunnah as interpretative proofs and methodology.

Islam emphasizes ethical principles in business. Muslims can promote business but that must be done within the ethical framework of Islam. The current Ghanaian promotional strategies are ethically questionable. They lead to unethical earning of livelihood and unjust acquisition of wealth through gambling and other ill‐perceived means which do not promote the ethical values of Muslims.

The paper emphasizes the necessity for further research into the ethical dimensions of business practices, in general, in Ghana to promote ethical responsibility in the society.

The study inculcates mutual socio‐economic and ethical responsibilities between Ghanaian sellers and buyers to save the society from the situation where love of wealth supersedes ethical interests.

This paper is an attempt to present legal issues of Islamic corporate governance (ICG) in the presence of global financial crises. It presents ICG model and discusses its viability in today’s corporate structure. The model is based on institution of Hisbah which demands book keeping, disclosure, transparency based on Shariah principles of Islamic Finance Ethics.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a new analytical framework in examining corruption from the social ontology perspective by using the Schatzkian practice theory to assess the interconnectedness among social practices constituting the social reality.

This exploratory paper is part of the author’s study to assess the complex corruption phenomenon in Indonesia from multiple perspectives to gain a better understanding of its nature and dynamics. By drawing from the existing literature on the Schatzkian practice theory, the COVID-19 pandemic and the corruption phenomenon, this study investigates the potential changes of the new constellation of practice-arrangement bundles within the social reality and how such changes may alter corruption practices in the future. Furthermore, this study also uses publicly available reports from several national and international agencies to explore possible future scenarios from the interconnectedness of corruption, anti-corruption and pandemic practices. This paper constructs a new analytical framework for assessing the corruption phenomenon and designing the most appropriate anti-corruption strategy from such an exploration. The framework also serves as a reference for future anti-corruption research.

The author establishes that all social phenomena are constructed by an interconnected, dynamic and ever-changing constellation of practice-arrangement bundles within the social reality. As a largely social phenomenon (at least in Indonesia), corruption is also constructed by webs of practice-arrangement bundles. For decades, corruption practices in Indonesia have always been interconnected with anti-corruption practices in ways that changes in one group of practices will drive changes in the others. With the adoption of the pandemic practices centered around social distancing, social restriction and social safety net, corruption practices appear to transform to adapt to the new environment. Therefore, future anti-corruption research should aim to examine the structure and dynamics of corruption, anti-corruption and pandemic practices to highlight changes or potential changes within the three groups of practices to determine the most appropriate intervention measures and anti-corruption strategy.

This exploratory study is self-funded and relies primarily on documentary analysis to explore the corruption phenomenon in Indonesia. Future studies will benefit from in-depth interviews with former corruption offenders and corruption investigators.

This exploratory paper contributes to developing a sound corruption prevention strategy by proposing a new analytical framework for assessing various social practices, particularly those associated with corruption and the COVID-19 pandemic.

This paper highlights the importance of understanding the structure, interconnectedness and dynamics of social practices, particularly associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, to better understand the corruption phenomenon.

In this essay, the author explores John Paul II’s thought on human work, and argues that, just as the Jesuit Henrich Pesch and members of his study group contributed directly to the preparation of Pius XI’s Quadragesimo Anno in 1931, Pietro Pavan helped advance John Paul II’s own thinking about man and work. Tondini draws our attention to Dignitatis Humanae from the Second Vatican Council wherein, he asserts, there is to be found a cultural harmony between Pavan and John Paul II.

This paper aims to articulate the complexities posed by tax havens and offshore financial centres (OFCs) in the global fight against financial crimes such as tax avoidance and money laundering. It suggests possible measures to mitigate the effect of tax avoidance on economic development of countries, especially less developed poor countries.

Data were evaluated using examples and case studies drawn from tax havens and OFCs in newspaper reports to demonstrate how illicit proceeds of crime are spirited out of countries for safe custody in tax haven jurisdictions around the globe. The author also carried out a scoping review of the literature to delineate the correlation between tax havens, OFCs and the growth in financial crimes such as tax avoidance and money laundering.

There is a close correlation that bank secrecy laws in OFCs fuel the growth of financial crimes such as tax avoidance and money laundering around the globe. The findings also suggest that while imposition of sanctions on countries which transgress international financial regulatory regimes is an essential component in the international efforts against financial crimes, they need to be enforced on all states so that they are not seen as politicized and subsequently undermined.

It is important that states work in tandem to initiate desired regimes to address financial crimes but enunciating regimes alone cannot generate a far reaching impact unless they are enforced against all transgressing states.

The paper has practical implications for states, people, governments, oversight institutions, markets and other stakeholders because it unravels varied issues relating to tax avoidance, money laundering and policies that need to be adopted to address these challenges.

The paper draws attention to the impact of asymmetric information and data generation capacity in some countries on tax avoidance and other financial crimes and the need for international harmonization of tax and AML regimes.

The issues explored in this paper help to highlight the challenges posed by tax havens and OFCs for economic development of countries. While the paper was undertaken by the review of primary and secondary data, it offers important contributions that could potentially enhance the fight against tax avoidance.