The money laundering obtained by crime is qualified in the legislation of Ukraine under Article 209 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (CCU). According to the provisions of the specified article, money laundering consists in committing actions aimed at acquiring, possessing, using, disposing of property, including performing a financial transaction, concluding a transaction with such property, or moving, changing the form (transformation) of such property, or committing actions aimed at concealing, masking the origin of such property or possession of it, the right to such property, its sources of origin, location. Some aspects of preventing and countering legalization are also regulated by the Law of Ukraine “On Preventing and Countering the Legalization (Laundering) of Proceeds from Crime, Financing of Terrorism and Financing of the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction”. This law establishes the basic principles of preventing and combating money laundering, the principles of financial monitoring, verification of clients of primary financial monitoring entities, the basis of international cooperation in the field of prevention and counteraction, in particular with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the Committee of Experts of the Council of Europe on the Evaluation of Measures to Combat Money Laundering and the Financing of Terrorism (MONEYVAL), the European Union, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units, and the United Nations. It is also important that combating the money laundering obtained through criminal means is even more relevant for Ukraine under martial law, since criminal financial flows can be used by the enemy against the interests of our state by financing terrorist acts, conducting sabotage and other subversive activities. Therefore, the most important task of the relevant competent authorities in the field of preventing and countering legalization is the timely identification of such proceeds from sources that may be associated with hostile structures. In addition, in the conditions of the functioning of our economy during martial law, it is extremely important for Ukraine to maintain international financial support, the conditions of which are often the development of institutions and strengthening mechanisms for combating the laundering of criminal proceeds. It has been established that the money laundering obtained through criminal means is one of the most common economic offenses, which in turn has negative consequences for both the national and international economies. This criminal offense is aimed at concealing the source of origin of property associated with the commission of a crime in order to give it the appearance of being legitimate. In turn, fraud, as another type of economic offense, has similar characteristics, which may complicate their distinction in practice when qualifying certain actions. This article examines the criminal-legal aspects of the offense of money laundering obtained by criminal means, in accordance with the norms of the legislation of Ukraine, and also carries out a comparative analysis with the offense of fraud in order to identify significant differences between them. The authors of the article have studied that the specified criminal offenses differ in objects, purpose and legal consequences, and the correct delimitation of the specified components of criminal offenses is the basis for the correct qualification of certain actions. In addition, conclusions are drawn that inaccurate qualification can lead to errors in judicial practice, which in turn can affect the fairness of punishment. In particular, in cases where a person who committed fraud and took possession of certain property, and then legalized the assets obtained, should be convicted under both articles (Article 190 of the Criminal Code and Article 209 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). However, it should be noted that this requires thorough proof of intent and a clear establishment of the sequence of criminal acts.
Kryvonos et al. (Mon,) studied this question.