Problems of form and object of intent in the crime of money laundering in Italian legislation

Abstract

The rule that sanctions money laundering in Italy, provided for in art. 648-bis of the Penal Code, .contains a so-called «underlying crime» consisting of the prior commission of a crime, from which the assets intended to be laundered must come. The presence of such a constitutive element within the criminal type, however, raises delicate questions related to the criminal intention, which have been discussed both by doctrine and, more recently, by jurisprudence. Indeed, it is a question, on the one hand, of specifying exactly what the object of the criminal intention is with reference peto the money laundering crime and, on the other hand, of examining the scope of application, in the same context, of the so-called “dolus eventualis”.