Volltext: Tax crime as predicate offence to money laundering

2.2.4 Germany 
Germany also being a member of the FATF, it implements the FATF recommendations. In Germany, 
ML is punishable according to $ 261 Criminal Code.” The whole text of $ 261 Criminal Code is very 
long, which is not unusual for German legal texts, hence it can be found in Annex C below, both in 
German and in English (with the reservation that the English version is updated as of October 10, 2013 
only). 
When implementing FATF recommendation 3, Germany has chosen a combination of approaches 
when defining the predicate offences to ML, combining the threshold approach with the list approach. 
The first category of predicate offences consists of all felonies as defined in $ 12 Criminal Code (the 
threshold being illegal acts punishable with imprisonment of at least one year) as stipulated in $ 261 
para 1 sentence 2 number 1 Criminal Code. The law further defines a list of misdemeanours to be 
predicate offences to ML, e.g. taking bribes meant as an incentive to violating one's official duties 
(Bestechlichkeit, § 332 Criminal Code), and giving bribes as an incentive to the recipients violating 
his official duties (Bestechung, § 334 Criminal Code) according to § 261 para 1 sentence 2 number 2 
lit. a Criminal Code. 
Additionally, § 261 para 1 sentence 2 number 3 Criminal Code defines that misdemeanours according 
to § 373 Fiscal Code” (professional, violent or organised smuggling; gewerbsmässiger, gewaltsamer 
und bandenmässiger Schmuggel) and $ 374 para 2 Fiscal Code (qualified receiving, holding or selling 
goods obtained by tax evasion; gewerbsmässige oder bandenmässige Steuerhehlerei) are predicate 
offences to ML too. These two misdemeanours are also predicate offences to ML if committed in rela- 
  
% Many German laws and ordinances are available for free online from http://www.gesetze-im- 
internet .de/index.html, some of them even translated into English from http://www.gesetze-im- 
internet.de/Teilliste translations.html, accessed on April 3, 2016. 
The German Criminal Code as a whole is available (and updated to include the amendments as of December 10, 
  
2015) in German from http://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/bundesrecht/stgb/gesamt.pdf, accessed on April 3, 
2016. The English version of the German Criminal Code (updated to include the amendments as of October 10, 
2013) is available from http://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/englisch stgb/englisch stgb.html#p2142, accessed on 
April 3, 2016. There have been amendments to $ 261 German Criminal Code since October 10, 2013. 
7 The German Fiscal Code (Abgabenordnung, AO) as a whole is available (and updated to include the amend- 
ments as of December 3, 2015) in German from http://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/bundesrecht/stgb/gesamt.pdf, 
accessed on April 3, 2016. The English version of the German Fiscal Code (updated to include the amendments 
as of December 22, 2014) is available from http://www.gesetze-im- 
internet.de/englisch stgb/englisch stgb.html#p2142, accessed on April 3, 2016. There have been amendments to 
the German Fiscal Code since December 22, 2014. 
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