The curious case of the new anti-money laundering Portuguese law

João Luz Soares

Keywords

Money Laundering; Portuguese AM Law 83/2017; Economic Criminal Law; Terrorism Financing. 

Abstract

Starting from what is the international legislative apport, with special relevance to the 5th and 6th Community Directives, this article aims to address the new Portuguese Anti-Money Laundering Law (Law 83/2017) fragilities. More than a simple verification of the general characteristics of the aforementioned legal framework, this study intends to assert itself as a constructive criticism to the existing weaknesses (specificities) of the abovementioned law. In fact, this new anti-Money Laundering Law moves in intricacies that are difficult to implement, and the transposition of the legal framework regarding the prevention of money laundering has raised a concrete interest on the part of the legal professions that deal closely with this reality. As such, there are difficulties in understanding the obligations arising from that new legal Portuguese framework, exacerbated, even, and in a background approach, by the emergence of specific sectoral sanctioning regimes, often in contradiction with the general regime, in flagrant violation of the most basic general principles of Law.

Table of contents

Preliminary
1. Starting point: Article 368-A of the Portuguese CP and Law 83/2017
1.1. Brief consideration of article 368-A of the CP
1.2. The current legal framework: from Directive (EU) 2015/849 to the national legislative framework
2. Law 83/2017: its weaknesses
2.1. Criminal offenses and the sanctioning model of Law 83/2017: what balance?
2.2. Widespread instructional and decision-making competence
2.3. An economic goal?
2.4 Duty to Report Suspicious Operations
2.5 The punishment of attempt and negligence
2.6 The non-prohibition of reformatio in pejus
3. Food for thought: Law 83/2017 between convergences and divergences
Bibliography