The Convergence Of Dirty Money And Private To Private Corruption: Fact Or Fiction? How Efficient Are The Tools To Contain This? A Discourse from Anglo-American and Less Developed Countries’ Perspectives

The advent of globalisation and liberalization have necessitated and escalated a momentum amongst natural and legal persons in the quest to make profits. As a result, there have been activities, characterised by ways in which to evade the orderly manner of commercial interactions, thereby evading the regulatory radars. This has generated an inquest to ascertain the symbiotic nexus between dirty money and private to private corruption. The culprits generated funds via crime in both the private and public sectors and used money laundering to reintroduce the profits into the formal system. It is at this juncture, that the convergence question presents itself. Some mechanisms or tools directed towards curbing the problems are in the form of ‘‘soft laws’’ like the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the Basel Committee for Banking Supervision (BCBS) and the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC). The implementation is backed by the policy of ‘‘carrot and stick’’ mechanisms subtly introduced by global financial institutions exemplified by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, exuding anti-money laundering and corruption characteristics. Some major Conventions and statutory mechanisms came in form of the United Nations Convention against Corruption 2003 (UNCAC), the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organised Crime (UNCTOC) 2000, the United Kingdom Bribery Act 2010 and US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act 1977. This has necessitated the examination of the efficiency of the combative mechanisms, as there are evidently differences in the approach to tackling the issues on account of diverse jurisdictional frameworks.