The Ten Fundamental Laws of Money Laundering

* The more successful a money laundering apparatus is in imitating the patterns and behaviour of legitimate transactions, the less the likelihood of it being exposed.

* The more deeply embedded illegal activites are within the legal economy and the less their institutional and functional separation, the more difficult it is to detect money laundering.

* The lower the ratio of illegal to legal financial flows through any given business institution, the more difficult it is to detect money laundering.

* The higher the ratio of illegal "services" to physical goods production in any economy, the more easily money laundering can be conducted in that economy.

* The more the business structure of production and distribution of non-financial goods and services is dominated by small and independent firms or self-employed individuals, the more difficult the job of separating legal from illegal transactions.

* The greater the facility of using cheques, credit cards and other non-cash instruments for effecting illegal financial transactions, the more difficult it is to detect money laundering.

* The greater the degree of financial deregulation for legitimate transactions, the more difficult it is to trace and neutralize criminal money.

* The lower the ratio of illegally to legally earned income entering any given economy from outside, the harder the job of separating criminal from legal money.

* The greater the progress towards the financial services supermarket and the greater the degree to which all manner of financial services can be met within one integrated multi-divisional institution, the more difficult it is to detect money laundering.

* The greater the contradiction between global operation and national regulation of financial markets, the more difficult the detection of money laundering.