Author(s): Veselina Kanatova Buchkova
The article examines the legal framework of money laundering in the Anti-Money Laundering Measures Act, which was adopted by the Bulgarian legislator in 2018 and replaced the previous regulation on the measures against money laundering, imposed administratively by government agencies, operating in the field of national security and financial intelligence. The relationship between the regulation of the act of "money laundering" in the Anti-Money Laundering Measures Act and the Criminal Code is considered, outlining the differences in the concepts and indicating the consequences of the application of the regulation in relation to them. The paper makes a critical analysis of the definition of money laundering according to the Anti-Money Laundering Measures Act and its qualification from an objective and subjective point of view. It is concluded that the regulation of money laundering in the Anti-Money Laundering Measures Act does not correspond to the concept of the term from subjective point of view, despite the efforts of the legislator to specify in detail the acts that constitute money laundering and persons who are potential perpetrators. The article points out that it is not permissible in the legislation to have two separate qualifications of money laundering both from a legislative point of view and from law enforcement point of view. It is concluded that the dualism in the legal regulations leads to inefficiency of the legislation on money laundering and hinders the actual application of the preventive administrative measures established in the Anti-Money Laundering Measures Act.