Lavagem de dinheiro nos países membros do Mercosul: caminhos alternativos de persecução ao crime

Abstract

Globalization has brought a series of benefits to human life – it has brought closer the relationships of those who live far away, it has made human life more agile. The volatility with which information exchanges occur is frightening, both in terms of contributing to and harming the lives of citizens around the world. In this context, there is an economic criminality, which did not take long to incorporate all the mechanisms that technological innovations provided in the global context. In order to reinsert the proceeds of crime in the market with a lawful appearance, increasingly cunning and constantly changing methods are used; for this reason, there is a need for continuous study and improvement of cooperation techniques, in order to try to interrupt the conclusion of the money laundering process. Thus, in this work, the object of study is the crime of money laundering, approaching concepts of economic law, globalization, economic crime and, more precisely, the legislation aimed at combating this crime within MERCOSUR. Considering the problematic context in which the practice of such a crime is inserted, the following research question arises: What alternative would be viable to combat the crime of money laundering in the context of MERCOSUR, taking the Union European Union institutes of cooperation in criminal matters as a paradigm? The hypothesis is that horizontal cooperation in criminal matters based on the principle of mutual recognition would be possible, in order to allow more communication and integration of police and judiciary acts. Taking into account the aforementioned questioning, the general objective is to analyze a more effective alternative to criminal prosecution within the MERCOSUR, based on the European Union's international cooperation institutes. The justification for this study lies in the fact that the discussions contribute to form interpretative biases that allow the operator of the law a preview of the problematic contours that involve the fight against the crime of money laundering and the access to new perspectives based on well-known experiences at the international level in line with national legal institutes. In order to achieve this objective, the research is characterized by a qualitative approach, using the hypothetical-deductive method, when starting the examination of the factual hypothesis in a general way, considering, through the elaboration of theoretical and practical hypotheses regarding the fight against criminal organizations, to reach conclusions about the possibilities of retaliation for money laundering, as well as the historicaldialectical and comparative procedure methods, when legislation aimed at combating money laundering, in particular, in the European Union, will be examined, also resorting to the bibliographic technique of data collection. The research has pointed to the importance of taking into account horizontal legal cooperation, based on the principle of mutual recognition, as it has been practiced in the European Union, as an alternative to assisting the fight against money laundering within MERCOSUR.