The Offender’s Only Way Out: Monetizing and Enjoying Illicit Gains in Exile

Concealing illegal assets is an ancient problem that has been plaguing society for centuries. In recent times, the term “money laundering” was first used by the American press in the 1920s to describe the clever technique of hiding proceeds devised by notorious mobster Al Capone.

The Origins of Money Laundering

Al Capone, also known as “Scarface,” set up a series of laundries in Chicago to hide the illicit origin of his enormous profits from bootlegging, extortion, and prostitution. Journalists at the time referred to it as “money laundering,” washing away the original source of illegally acquired funds.

A Lack of Criminalization

However, Al Capone was never convicted of money laundering due to its lack of criminalization in the United States. It would not be until 1986 that Congress passed a special law criminalizing this type of conduct.

Italy’s Efforts Against Money Laundering

Italy, on the other hand, has had a history of tackling money laundering, introducing the crime into its penal system before many other countries. However, this coincided with one of the darkest periods in Italian history, marked by financial scandals and mafia violence.

• The 1970s saw the rise of powerful mafia organizations that accumulated large sums of money through drug trafficking and cigarette smuggling.
• They formed close relationships with politicians, bankers, and business leaders, growing in strength and relevance while public opinion was distracted by terrorism, economic crisis, and international geopolitical tensions.
• This period also saw the emergence of kidnapping as a new business model for some criminal organizations, which would replicate what terrorist groups had been doing for years.

Italy’s Response

In response to these threats, Italy introduced the crime of money laundering on March 21, 1978, just five days after the kidnapping of Aldo Moro. The decree-law aimed to punish money laundering with more serious penalties, considering it a particularly serious phenomenon that supported kidnappings for extortion.

The Work of Colonel Tomasso Solazzo

The article concludes by highlighting the work of Colonel Tomasso Solazzo, an expert in anti-money laundering procedures and a promoter of the European Anti-Mafia Network “Operational Network @on.”