A person commits the crime of money laundering if he knows that funds are proceeds of a predicate offence and intentionally does any of the following;
1-Converting or transferring proceeds, with the intention of concealing the funds or disguising their nature, source, location, owner or the holder of the right in them, or changing their true nature, or preventing this from being discovered, or obstructing the identification of the perpetrator of the predicate offence.
2-Acquiring, holding, using, managing, keeping, exchanging, depositing, guaranteeing or investing the proceeds, or manipulating their value, or concealing or disguising their true nature, source, location, the manner of their disposal, their movement, their ownership or the rights relating to them
Elements of the crime of money laundering:
A material element
A mental element
A presumed element (knowledge) Criminal and civil liability is excluded for anyone who – in good faith – performs the duty to report any suspicious transactions subject to the provisions of the law, or provides information or data to the Unit in breach of the rules imposed to ensure their confidentiality.
Every person, on entering or leaving the country, must declare to the customs authorities the foreign currency and bearer negotiable instruments he is carrying, the declaration being made in accordance with the rules, procedures and limits set out in the executive regulations. The customs authorities, as judicial police officers, may, in the event of failure to make the declaration or the provision of false information about it, “question the offender about the source of the foreign currency and bearer negotiable instruments in his possession and the purposes of their use.
The law gave these authorities the power to seize currency and bearer negotiable instruments in the cases specified in the law, and also when there are serious indications that they involve money or asset laundering or terrorist financing, provided that they send the reports they draw up in this regard to the competent authorities to take the necessary action, without prejudice to any more severe penalty provided for in the Penal Code or any other law.
These crimes are punished:
Whoever commits or attempts to commit the crime of laundering money or assets provided for in Article (2) of this law is punished with imprisonment for not more than seven years and a fine equal to twice the money or assets that are the subject of the crime.
This crime is excluded from the application of the provisions of the second paragraph of Article (32) of the Penal Code
The seized money or assets and the proceeds of the money-laundering crime or the predicate offence are confiscated upon violation of the provision of Article (2) of this law, and the confiscation includes the following:
1-The laundered money or assets.
2-The proceeds, including income or other benefits derived from these proceeds. If the proceeds are mixed with funds acquired from legitimate sources, an amount equal to their estimated value, or to that of the instrumentalities used or intended for use in money-laundering crimes or predicate offences, is confiscated.
An additional fine equal to the value of the money or assets is imposed if they cannot be seized or if they have been disposed of to a third party in good faith.
Where the crime is committed by a legal person, the person responsible for the actual management of that legal person is punished with the same penalties prescribed for acts committed in violation of the provisions of this law if his knowledge of them is proven and the crime occurred because of his breach of the duties of his office.
The legal person is punished with a fine of not less than one hundred thousand pounds and not more than five million pounds, and is jointly liable for paying the financial penalties and compensation awarded if the crime committed in violation of the provisions of this law was committed by one of its employees in its name and for its benefit; the court may prohibit the legal person from carrying on its activity for a specified period or cancel the licence granted to it to carry on the activity. The court orders, in the judgment of conviction, the publication of the judgment at the legal person’s expense in two widely circulated daily newspapers
Where there are several offenders in a crime of laundering money or assets, if one of them takes the initiative to inform any of the authorities competent for inquiry or investigation of the crime and the other offenders before any of these authorities first learns of it, or informs them while the authorities are unaware of the crime and his report leads to the arrest of the other offenders or the seizure of the money or assets that are the subject of the crime, the court – when it finds the conditions met – exempts the informing offender from the penalties of imprisonment and fine prescribed in the first paragraph of Article (14) of this law, but not from the complementary penalties prescribed in the second paragraph of the same article.
The Public Prosecutor and the Military Prosecutor, as the case may be, or in cases of urgency, may order the imposition of precautionary measures including freezing or attachment, with the aim of preventing the disposal of money or assets related to money-laundering crimes and the related predicate offences or terrorist financing.
The Egyptian judicial authorities exchange judicial cooperation with foreign judicial authorities in the field of money-laundering crimes, the related predicate offences and terrorist-financing crimes, with regard to assistance, letters rogatory, and the extradition of accused and convicted persons and of objects, all in accordance with the rules established by the bilateral / multilateral agreements to which Egypt is a party or in accordance with the principle of reciprocity.
Taking the necessary legal measures to trace, freeze or attach the money or assets that are the subject of crimes of laundering money or assets and terrorist-financing crimes, or their proceeds, all without prejudice to the rights of third parties in good faith.
