40,000 tip-offs on dirty money offences

Almost 40,000 cases of suspected money-laundering were reported to gardaí in three years, but just 10 people were convicted of the crime during the same period.

It has also emerged that assets in two Irish-based investment funds worth $180m (€140m) have been frozen because of suspected links to money-laundering.

Figures from the Justice Department’s anti-money-laundering compliance unit show that, between 2009 and 2011, 38,984 suspicious transactions were reported. The majority (80%) of all reports relate to domestic tax and social welfare issues.