According to the International Financial Action Task Force​, money laundering consists of three phases:

• Placement: property and income are placed in financial and non-financial circuits, through, for example, deposits with financial institutions or investments in profitable activities and high value property;

• Circulation: property and income are subject to multiple and repeated transactions (for example, transfers of funds), with the purpose of distancing them from their criminal origin, eliminating any trace of their origin and ownership;

• Integration: the already recycled property and income are reintroduced into legitimate economic circuits, through their use, for example, to purchase goods and services.

In the Cabo Verdean legal system, money laundering is a crime provided for in Article 39 of Law No. 38/VII/2009, dated 27 April, as amended by Law No. 120/VIII/2016, dated 24 March.

 

Terrorism Financing

In conjunction with the money laundering prevention framework, legislative measures were adopted to facilitate the detection, prevention and suppression of terrorism financing, reducing the possibilities that those who commit acts of terrorism, terrorist organizations and groups and their funders will have access to the international financial system.

These measures include the freezing and loss of property belonging to perpetrators of acts of terrorism and those who support and finance terrorist groups and organizations, the duty to report transactions suspected of having some kind of connection with terrorism, the increase in duties to prevent money laundering (in particular the duty to identify) in the context of fund transfers, and the criminalization of terrorism financing.

In the Cabo Verdean legal system, the classification of terrorism financing as an autonomous crime is contained in Article 7 of Law No. 27/VIII/2013, dated 21 January, republished by Law No. 119/VIII/2016, dated 24 March.