Prevention Of Money Laundering Act, 2002

Object To prevent money laundry, confiscation of the proceeds derived there from and for the connected matters.

Important Definitions Money Laundry Intermediary Proceeds of the crime Scheduled Offence

Chapter – 2 Offence of Money Laundry Section 3 – Money Laundry means directly or indirectly involve in any process of dealing with the proceeds of crime and projecting it as untainted property

Section 4 – Punishment for Money Laundry The money laundry shall be punishable with regress imprisonment for a term of not less than 3 years, extendable till 7 years and fine up to 5 lakhs and in serious crimes up to 10 years imprisonment.

Chapter – 3 Attachment adjudication and confiscation Section – 5 Attachment of proceeds of crime The attachment to the property involved to the money laundry shall be ordered by the director or the deputy director of directorate of enforcement provided that property is actually Involved in the money laundry and hence the proceeds of the crime That property is likely to be transferred so as to frustrate the proceedings The accused has been charge sheeted for such offence. This attachment will be done as provided by Income Tax Act.

After the attachment, the attachment order and connected evidence will be send to the adjudicating authority under this Act. After the filing of this attachment report, the attaching officer shall file a formal complaint also before the adjudicating authority.

Section 8 - Adjudication After the receipt of the complaint the adjudicating authority will issue notice to the opposite party calling upon him to furnish the evidence regarding the source of income from which such property is acquired within 30 days so that the property is not declared as involved in money laundry and confiscated to govt.

After hearing the party and the attaching officer and examining the records the adjudicating authority shall decide the complaint. And if the decision is that such property is involved in money laundry, the attachment will become final and it will continue till the decision of the court in the case.

If the attachment of the property become final, the adjudicating authority will order the confiscation of such property to the govt.

Section 9 – Vesting of the property in govt. Where the confiscation has been made, that property will be vested in the central govt. free of all encumbrances. If any liability has been created on such property by a document, it will also become void.