Money laundering is the process of hiding the source of money obtained from illegal sources and converting it to a clean source, thereby avoiding prosecution, conviction, and confiscation of the criminal funds. It is an illegal exercise that converts black money into white money.
According to Wikipedia "Money laundering is the process of illegally concealing the origin of money, obtained from illicit activities such as drug trafficking, corruption, embezzlement or gambling, by converting it into a legitimate source. It is a crime in many jurisdictions with varying definitions. It is usually a key operation of organized crime.
"In United States law, money laundering is the practice of engaging in financial transactions to conceal the identity, source, or destination of illegally gained money. In United Kingdom law, the common law definition is wider. The act is defined as "taking any action with property of any form which is either wholly or in part the proceeds of a crime that will disguise the fact that that property is the proceeds of a crime or obscure the beneficial ownership of said property".
"In the past, the term "money laundering" was applied only to financial transactions related to organized crime. Today its definition is often expanded by government and international regulators such as the US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to mean "any financial transaction which generates an asset or a value as the result of an illegal act," which may involve actions such as tax evasion or false accounting. In the UK, it does not need to involve money, but any economic good. Courts involve money laundering committed by private individuals, drug dealers, businesses, corrupt officials, members of criminal organizations such as the Mafia, and even states.
According to www.tookitaki.com it describes Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) as "Nigeria's primary agency responsible for investigating and prosecuting money laundering offenses. The commission has the authority to arrest and prosecute individuals and entities suspected of engaging in money laundering activities."
Unfortunately, many government officials get themselves into money laundering and get away with it, EFCC has failed to prosecute many politicians but only chasing the Yahoo boys, all financial criminals should be brought to judgement.
Furthermore, Nigeria is the second most corrupt country in West Africa ahead of Ghana, according to the latest Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) | Business Insider Africa.
https://africa.businessinsider.com/local/markets/
Therefore, due to the bad reputation some government officials as well as other individuals had bought for Nigeria, Nigerians seen as bad people in the global list, although, it is not all Nigerians that are bad or corrupt.
Chief Dr. Patrick Osagie Eholor otherwise known as Ultimate Equal, the Father of Nigerian Students-FONS recently was in China and according to him, he was denied of getting funds when he was about to get stranded, in his words, while sharing his experience with the Journalists today, he said
"Talking about the way I was treated in China is not really about me, it is all about people, I am a humanist, as you know I get myself in unnecessary troubles, even granting this interview is a risk on my business and collaborations with the Chinese because China people do not like anyone speaking ill about them, but we have to speak the truth, Chinese come here to mine our gold freely, they have lots of free engagements which they will never pay for, though we cannot label all Chinese as bad people because we have good Chinese too.
"While in China, it happened that I needed funds which I asked a son to send me fund, he sent thirteen thousand dollars but to be candid I had issues getting the money as they have tagged all Nigerians as people who is involved in money laundering and this was what I got from them, I felt offended, I could not get the thirteen thousand and I asked what was my offense which they replied that Nigerians cannot be trusted, that all Nigerians are into money laundering, they blacklisted all Nigerians.
"I therefore wrote to the Senate for the matter to be investigated, and asked why they should tag all the entire nation as fraudulent people, this means they do not have respect for us because we didn't have respect for ourselves.
I want the ambassador to China to address us on that in order to help those that are suffering from this problem, I can survive it but what about others who cannot speak like me." Eholor concluded