Money Laundering: Criminal Defence Guide 2026

Money laundering (Art. 301 CP) is one of the most heavily prosecuted economic offences in Spain. As criminal lawyers experienced in money laundering, we explain the keys to the defence in this area.

What Is Money Laundering?

It consists of concealing or disguising the unlawful origin of assets, or helping a person who has committed an offence to evade the legal consequences of their acts. It is punished with 6 months to 6 years in prison and a fine of between the value of the assets and three times that value.

The penalty is aggravated (up to double) where:

• The assets derive from drug trafficking, corruption or terrorism offences.
• The launderer is a professional (lawyer, notary, tax adviser).
• It is carried out through a criminal organisation.

The Indicators of Laundering the Prosecution Uses

The Supreme Court accepts circumstantial evidence in laundering cases. The most common indicators are:

1. Unjustified increase in wealth: spending or investments disproportionate to declared income.
2. Cash transactions: splitting deposits to stay below the reporting threshold (€10,000).
3. Shell companies: creating companies with no real activity to channel funds.
4. International transfers: movements towards tax havens with no economic justification.
5. Links to offenders: a personal or professional relationship with people under investigation.

Laundering vs Self-Laundering

Since 2010, Spain punishes self-laundering: laundering money that derives from an offence you yourself committed. This is highly controversial because it means punishing the same person twice (for the predicate offence and for the laundering). Our defence focuses on the principle of the exhaustion of the offence: if the perpetrator simply uses the proceeds of the offence for their ordinary needs, there is no autonomous laundering.

Laundering with Crypto-Assets: the Impact of MiCA and MiCA 2

Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 on markets in crypto-assets (MiCA), applicable from 2024-2025, and the proposed MiCA 2 (a 2026 revision focused on DeFi and algorithmic stablecoins) reinforce the obligations of crypto-asset service providers (CASPs) regarding the prevention of laundering. The key points are:

• Travel Rule: the obligation to transmit identifying data of the originator and beneficiary in each transfer, in line with Regulation (EU) 2023/1113.
• Reinforced KYC: CASPs must verify the customer's identity and the origin of the funds before operating.
• Non-custodial wallets: reduced thresholds (€1,000) that require information to be gathered about the holder.
• DeFi and mixers: MiCA 2 shifts AML obligations onto the developer and the front-end with a control function, widening the circle of responsible parties.

In criminal terms, the use of crypto-assets as a vehicle for laundering continues to be prosecuted under Art. 301 CP. SEPBLAC and the Anti-Drug Prosecutor's Office already use blockchain forensics tools (Chainalysis, TRM Labs) to trace on-chain operations. The defence requires specific technical knowledge: wallet traceability, the analysis of mixers, the identification of peeling chain and layering patterns.

Defence Strategies

• Lawful origin of the assets: proving the legal origin of the funds with fiscal and banking documentation.
• Absence of intent: proving that the person under investigation was unaware of the unlawful origin of the assets.
• Nullity of evidence: challenging wiretaps and bank searches carried out without judicial authorisation.
• Applying the ne bis in idem principle: avoiding double punishment in self-laundering cases.
• Defence in crypto-assets: attacking the blockchain chain of indicators: errors in attributing wallets, defective KYC by the CASP, doctrine on the legitimate purpose of mixers.