How is money laundering punished?

Pursuant to the provisions on money laundering in Article 324 of the 2015 Penal Code (amended and supplemented in 2017), money laundering can be understood as a guilty act, directly or indirectly concealing the illegal origin and legalizing money and assets obtained by a subject with criminal responsibility, causing significant danger to society, violating criminal law and subject to punishment.

CThe money laundering acts listed include:

- Directly or indirectly participating in financial, banking or other transactions to conceal the illegal origin of money or property obtained through one's own crime or knowing or having reason to know that it is obtained through another's crime;

- Using money or property obtained through one's own crime or knowing or having grounds to know that it was obtained through another's crime to conduct business or other activities;

- Concealing information about the origin, true nature, location, movement or ownership of money or property obtained through crime or knowing or having grounds to know that it was obtained through another person's crime or obstructing the verification of such information;

- Committing one of the acts specified in points a, b and c of this clause with respect to money or property known to be obtained from the transfer, assignment or conversion of money or property obtained by another person through criminal acts.

Individuals who commit money laundering will be prosecuted for criminal liability for money laundering according to the provisions of Clauses 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Article 324 of the Penal Code.2015 (amended 2017), specifically:

- Anyone who commits one of the acts considered money laundering mentioned above shall be sentenced to imprisonment from 01 year to 05 years.

- A person who commits the crime of money laundering shall be sentenced to imprisonment from 05 years to 10 years when one of the following signs is added: Organized; Abusing position and power; Committing the crime 02 times or more; Professional in nature; Using sophisticated and cunning tricks; Money and property involved in the crime are worth from 200,000,000 VND to under 500,000,000 VND; Illegal profits from 50,000,000 VND to under 100,000,000 VND; Dangerous recidivism.

- Committing a crime in one of the following cases shall be punishable by imprisonment from 10 to 15 years: Money or property involved in the crime is worth 500,000,000 VND or more; Illegal profits are 100,000,000 VND or more; Negatively affecting the safety of the national financial and monetary system.

- For the crime of money laundering, the person preparing to commit the crime can also be imprisoned from 06 months to 03 years.

- In addition, additional penalties shall be applied to those who commit money laundering as follows: Fine from VND 20,000,000 to VND 100,000,000, ban from holding positions, ban from practicing a profession or doing certain jobs from 01 year to 05 years or confiscation of part or all of the assets.

The penalty for legal entities committing money laundering is prescribed in Clause 6, Article 324 of the 2015 Penal Code (amended in 2017), specifically:

- For legal entities committing money laundering, the highest penalty that can be applied is a fine of10,000,000,000copper to20,000,000,000contract or suspension of operations for a period of 01 to 03 years.

- Commercial legal entities may also be fined from VND 1,000,000,000 to VND 5,000,000,000, banned from doing business, banned from operating in certain fields or banned from raising capital from 01 year to 03 years.

A commercial legal entity established solely to commit crimes shall have all operations permanently suspended.