The problem of money laundering has received increased attention in recent years. Currently, other standards, which have been developed in accordance with the latest technologies, are applied in the investigation of money laundering cases. The leading countries studying money laundering are the United States, Switzerland, Australia, China, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands. The topicality of the research is based on the lack of scientific theoretical foundations in the field of anti-money laundering and the application of methods and techniques for investigating money laundering in practice. The article provides the definition and stages of money laundering and explains the stand-alone (autonomous) money laundering. Particular attention is paid to the money laundering typologies for the investigation of stand alone money laundering, including the methodological recommendations developed by the Financial Intelligence Unit of Latvia in 2020 which are adapted to national circumstances. The authors describe a number of important events in Latvia in the fight against money laundering in the country that influenced further developments in this area: changes in legislation and in the investigative approach, and professional and scientific interest in this topic. The article examines the economic and social aspects of money laundering, which have so far not received sufficient attention in informing the public about the negative impact of money laundering. The novelty of the research is presented as an extension of the scientific theoretical basis for more effective money laundering investigation and examining a new approach to money laundering investigation based on typologies. The authors, using the results of an empirical study of typologies developed by the Financial Intelligence Unit, present the results of their application based on six criminal proceedings on money laundering. The results of the pilot project show that the set of features of the developed typologies mainly corresponds to the specific typology identified by the investigators themselves. The study shows the possibility of applying typologies in practice, which is especially valuable in cases of autonomous money laundering, where there is no direct evidence of a predicate offense. The research methods include bibliometric research, historical analogy method, conceptual analysis, comparative analysis and synthesis method, and graphical method.