Money Laundering: Criminal Defence Guide 2026
In this article
Key Takeaways
- Prison of 6 months to 6 years
- Circumstantial evidence accepted
- MiCA and Regulation 2023/1113: crypto AML
- Defence: lawful origin and blockchain forensics
Money laundering (Art. 301 CP) means concealing the unlawful origin of assets or helping the author of the predicate offence evade its consequences. It carries 6 months to 6 years in prison and a fine of one to three times their value, in its upper half if the funds come from drug trafficking or corruption. The defence seeks to prove lawful origin and lack of intent.
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Money laundering (Art. 301 CP) is one of the most heavily prosecuted economic offences in Spain. As a money laundering lawyer in Spain, our team explains 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 imposed in its upper half where:
- The assets derive from drug trafficking (Arts. 368 to 372 CP) or from the offences listed in Art. 301.1 CP itself, including bribery, influence peddling, embezzlement, corruption in business, urban planning offences and human trafficking.
- The launderer is an obliged entity under anti-money laundering rules (for example, a notary, a tax adviser or a lawyer in certain transactions) and acts in the course of their professional activity (Art. 302.1 CP).
- The offender belongs to an organisation dedicated to laundering; its heads, administrators or managers receive the penalty one degree higher (Art. 302.1 CP).
The Indicators of Laundering the Prosecution Uses
The Supreme Court accepts circumstantial evidence in laundering cases. The most common indicators are:
- Unjustified increase in wealth: spending or investments disproportionate to declared income.
- Cash transactions: splitting deposits to stay below reporting or declaration thresholds.
- Shell companies: creating companies with no real activity to channel funds.
- International transfers: movements towards tax havens with no economic justification.
- 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 Regulation 2023/1113
Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 on markets in crypto-assets (MiCA), applicable from 30 December 2024, makes crypto-asset service providers (CASPs) subject to authorisation, and Regulation (EU) 2023/1113 imposes traceability obligations on them to prevent 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: for transfers of more than €1,000 to or from a self-hosted address, the provider must assess whether the address is owned or controlled by its customer (Arts. 14.5 and 16.2 of Regulation 2023/1113).
- DeFi and mixers: Regulation 2023/1113 treats mixers as a high-risk factor; MiCA does not apply to services provided in a fully decentralised manner without an intermediary (recital 22) and requires the Commission to assess whether decentralised finance should be regulated (Art. 142).
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.
The framework is also changing: the EU's new anti-money-laundering rulebook (AMLR and AMLA), with its cash limits, tightens the administrative duties that sit on top of Article 301 CP.
Under Investigation for Money Laundering?
Money laundering investigations are long and complex. Stepping in from the initial stage is crucial to avoid precautionary measures on your assets. Contact our team.
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Official text: article 301 of the Spanish Criminal Code (BOE)
Frequently asked questions
What penalty does money laundering carry in Spain?
Under Art. 301 CP, 6 months to 6 years in prison and a fine of between the value of the laundered assets and three times that value, imposed in its upper half where the funds derive from drug trafficking or from the offences listed in Art. 301.1 itself (corruption, urban planning or human trafficking, among others), where the launderer is an obliged professional acting in the course of their work, or where they belong to an organisation dedicated to laundering; the heads of such an organisation receive the penalty one degree higher (Art. 302.1 CP).
Can prosecutors convict for money laundering using only circumstantial evidence?
Yes — the Supreme Court accepts circumstantial indicators such as an unjustified increase in wealth, cash transactions structured to stay below reporting or declaration thresholds, shell companies with no real activity, and unexplained transfers to tax havens.
What is 'self-laundering' and why is it controversial?
Self-laundering is laundering the proceeds of an offence you yourself committed, punishable since 2010; it is controversial because it can mean punishing the same conduct twice, and the defence commonly relies on the principle of 'exhaustion of the offence' — simply using the proceeds for ordinary needs is not, by itself, a separate laundering act.
How does the use of cryptocurrency affect a money laundering case?
Using crypto-assets to launder funds is still prosecuted under Art. 301 CP, but the evidentiary picture now involves blockchain forensics tools tracing on-chain transactions, so the defence often needs to challenge wallet attribution, KYC failures by the exchange, or the methodology of the tracing itself.
What is the main defence against a money laundering accusation?
Proving the lawful origin of the assets with fiscal and banking documentation, and demonstrating the absence of knowledge of any unlawful origin, since the intentional offence requires knowing (or accepting as highly probable) that the funds derived from criminal activity; negligence is punishable only if it is gross (Art. 301.3 CP), with a lower penalty.
When should I hire a money laundering lawyer in Spain?
As early as possible — a money laundering lawyer in Spain should be brought in from the first notification of an investigation, since these cases move quickly to asset-freezing measures and the defence depends on gathering the fiscal and banking documentation proving the lawful origin of the assets before those measures are requested.
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This page is for information purposes only and does not constitute legal advice: every case requires individual assessment. How this content is produced and verified: editorial policy.