Parameters of a Successful and legitimate Covert Entrapment Operation in the Economic Crime of Money Laundering

Money laundering is considered as a by-product of criminal activities having the potential of destroying the integrity of financial institutions in a country. Thus, it is necessary to discover this crime and fight it. But the special characteristics of this crime, including its non-visibility, rhizomization of the space and ways of committing, professional perpetrators, its mobility and dynamicity, dispersion of danger, being organized, and seeming to be without victims. Therefore, we have to use secret operations to discover this crime. Entrapment can be mentioned among these operations, having three features in the crime of money laundering: 1) Gaining evidence against money launderers and excluding them from the cycle of criminal activity; 2) Arresting people who are likely to have fraudulent intentions, these people will be prevented from committing crimes because of the fearing that they may be the prey of these operations; 3) Through these operations, criminal organizations have moved large amounts of cash to use the services of money laundering companies, making it easier for the officers to identify them. But an entrapment operation can be successful when, in addition to entrapping real criminals, it also warns potential criminals. Taking into account the economy and ethics of these operations and their management and considering people's reaction to them are among other characteristics of this kind of operations.