Selling charcoal and money laundering
My aunt was found selling charcoal without a permit to sell or buy forest produce. At the time of her arrest she had already sold a number of bags of charcoal and had some amount of cash in her poach. She is now being charged with selling forest produce without a licence contrary to the Forest Act and is also being threated that money laundering may be added to the charge sheet from the proceeds of charcoal she sold contrary to the Anti-Money Laundering Act. Can money laundering be charged for selling charcoal which is what many poor Tanzanians do for a living or is it maliciously being charged to deny my aunt bail? I find it very strange that such threats can be validly made for selling charcoal in Tanzania.
HH, Mtwara
As strange as it may sound, unfortunately in this case, the prosecutor can add money laundering to the charge sheet.
The scope of money laundering in Tanzania is extremely wide. Illegal sell of charcoal is an environmental crime and section 3 of the Anti- Money Laundering Act lists environmental crime as a predicate offence for which money laundering can be charged. Therefore, under law if your aunt is charged with money laundering vide section 12(a) of the Anti-Money Laundering Act, she will be properly charged, because she engaged herself in a transaction that involves amounts which are proceeds of a predicate offence.
Other predicate offences for which money laundering can be charged include offences like terrorist financing, illicit arms trafficking, participating in an organised criminal group, trafficking in human beings and smuggling immigrants, sexual exploitation, illicit trafficking in stolen or other goods, corruption practice, counterfeiting,