Money laundering consequences Recovering wealth, piercing secrecy, disrupting tax havens and distorting international law

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to take an overarching analytical perspective on four decades of money laundering regulation. Design/methodology/approach - This study extracts the principal impacts of anti-money laundering (AML) regulation through a distillation of money laundering research. Findings - The most significant impacts of money laundering regulation are some recovery of tainted wealth, modest increases in the visibility of global financial transactions, disruption of tax haven jurisdictions and some distortions to international law. Research limitations/implications - This study offers a glimpse of the wider impacts of money laundering underscoring the need for empirical work. Originality/value - The originality lies in linking developments in discrete fields to money laundering regulation.