MERITOCRACY – a political system in which economic goods and/or political power are vested in individuals, based on ability, talent, effort, and achievement, rather than wealth or social class. Advancement in such a system is based on performance, measured through assessment or demonstrated achievement. The term is a combination of merit: derived from Latin mereō, and -cracy, from Ancient Greek κράτος kratos, meaning strength or power.
MONEY LAUNDERING – any act or attempted act to disguise the source of money or assets derived from criminal activity. Money laundering includes concealing the origins and the use of the illegal assets. It is often used to disguise the proceeds of corruption, and is widely practiced by drug traffickers, human traffickers, kleptocrats and white-collar criminals. Bank secrecy makes laundered money particularly hard to trace.
MUTUAL LEGAL ASSISTANCE – the formal process of co-operation between two or more jurisdictions, for example on cross-border money laundering, asset recovery and tax evasion cases.
