Does Anti-Money Laundering Work?

The Globalization of White Collar Crimes: An Inside Look of How Fraud, Embezzlement, Cybercrime, Identity Theft and Forgery Are Increasing World-Wide

The Task Force on Organized crime states that, “the core of organized crime activity is the supplying of illegal goods and services-gambling, loan- sharking, narcotics and other forms of vice- to countless numbers of citizen customers” (Abadinsky, 1981, p. 267). However, the business of organized frequently consists of activities that are neither services nor goods, instead they are undoubtedly scrounging. The connection among illicit business and organized crime can take one of three following forms: first we have the parasitic form, where associates of a criminal organization extract money from illegal businesspersons by intimidating them with violence (Abadinsky, 1981, p. 267). The second from is reciprocal: members of a criminal organization require genuine or illegal entrepreneurs to pay a secure or percentage sum, then in return they deliver services like limiting

When criminals reach this stage, it becomes arduous for investigators to distinguish if the funds are licit or not ( Grosse, 4 ). One of the most famous money laundering scandals in America was the Bank of New York money laundering scandal with Russia. In the summer of 1999, The Bank of New York found themselves in a predicament when they were found as suspects of an international money laundering scandal. The bank laundered billions of dollars to the Russian mafia and Russian politics. In august later that year, the New York Times published their calculations that the bank laundered nearly $14.2 billion dollars to $10 billion dollars that was laundered from Russia passed through the Bank of New York (Block, 3).

enterprise by engaging in various criminal activities, including fraud, bribery and money laundering. Two generations of

Banks are susceptible to money laundering within the organization. Banks are an easy target for money laundering because criminals or drug cartel can pay off bank employees or personnel in order to run their money through the bank. Criminals also have the ability to purchase a controlling interest in a bank, especially those banks with weak controls. This allows the criminals to move money through the bank without being questioned.

Banks are susceptible to money laundering within the organization. Banks are an easy target for money laundering because criminals or drug cartel can pay off bank employees or personnel in order to run their money through the bank. Criminals also have the ability to purchase a controlling interest in a bank, especially those banks with weak controls. This allows the criminals to move money through the bank without being questioned. In addition, money laundering is likely to occur within a bank if criminals submit

The fight against money laundering over the last two decades has become an increasingly important task. Although the idea of money laundering has historically been associated with the 1930s and gangsters such as Al Capone and Meyer Lansky, operating under the US Dry Regime, broad public use, the term acquired during the Watergate case investigation mid-70s . It is the law that defines money laundering as a crime that occurs in the 1980s. Since then, many initiatives have been developed and implemented to combat this criminal activity. When discussing the issue, one must take into account the most important economic change of the last few decades - the growing globalization of the world economy and especially the global capital market. Economies

The definition of organized crime is faced with only attempts to generally accept one firm definition. For the purpose of this paper, organized crime shall be defined by the FBI as “any group having some manner of a formalized structure and whose primary objective is to obtain money through illegal activity” (2014). No exception was made in defining white collar crime. However, in essence lying, stealing, and cheating make up what is known as white collar crime. Coined by Sutherland in 1939 is now only an umbrella term for many typologies of frauds committed by businesses and government professionals (FBI.gov, 2014). The gaining of incomes that comes from illegal activities would need to appear legal, through money laundering. These criminals

Despite several aggressive efforts by law enforcement agencies, organized crime continues to be a serious social problem (Lyman & Potter, 2014). It is important to understand organized crime and its effects on society. Therefore, this paper analyses the definition of organized crime, law enforcement agencies response to organized crime, and the importance of understanding this form of crime.

Organized crime is any enterprise or group of persons engaged in a continuing illegal activity which has as its primary purpose the generation of profits. Criminal organizations keep their illegal dealings secret, and members communicate by word of mouth. Many organized crime operations have profitable legal businesses, such as licensed gambling, building construction, or trash hauling which operate alongside and provide "cover" for the illegal businesses. Their main criminal activities are: racketeering; fraud; car theft; robbery; armed assault; drug dealing; trafficking in weapons and radioactive material; trafficking in human beings and exploitation through prostitution; alien smuggling; smuggling of precious and antique goods; extortion for protection money; gambling; embezzling from industries and financial institutions up to infiltration and control of private and commercial banks; controlling of black markets.

However, this process can be messy at times. This strategy is crucial for early steps of an investigation. A few major problems come to play when trying to “follow the money” One major problem with this strategy is that money laundering is international, which makes it harder to track money. First, financial intelligence is unable to gain evidence from law enforcement records because law enforcement interest lie in drugs or violence of a criminal enterprise rather than financial details. Second, some money laundering schemes can be a complex process of layering so that a specialist should be attached to the investigation so they can use their expertise. Finally, money laundering is an international problem. Money can be moved in many ways, for instance, wiring money, using foreign banks, and investing in companies overseas just to name a few (Soudijn, 2014, p.214). The concept of “follow the money” can be a long and complex process when investigating criminal

The Prevention of Money-Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA) was enacted to safeguard against those acts of persons which are aimed at making tainted money appear as untainted. To take a simple example, if a person earns money through, say, dealing in narcotic drugs and thereafter takes some steps whereby it appears to have been earned through some legitimate business, such as running a laundry shop (the classic example), it is money-laundering . Thus, the ingredients of the Act are clear: there has to be an offence, monies have to be earned through such offence and then an act should be made delinking such earnings from the offence and linking it with another act that is not an offence .

Organized crime has been around for many years. Since the first definition was written organized crime has grown into multiple different meanings. According to the text, Introduction to Criminology, organized crime refers to “organizations that use violence, provide illegal services, and have immunity of operation.” (Hagan) Organized crime is also used throughout the world within gangs and secret organizations. There are multiple types and definitions of organized crime. The basic four types are; Political-Social, Mercenary (Predatory), In-Group-Oriented, and Syndicate Organized Crime. When it comes to actually finding the meaning of organized crime, it can be difficult depending on which definition one

White-collar crime is a term that describes a diverse amount of corporate and individual crimes ranging from fraud, bribery and public corruption to environmental crimes such as air and water pollution in addition to illegal dumping (Adler, Mueller, & Laufer, 2016). White-collar crimes are far from being victimless and as a matter of fact, depending on the sophistication level of the scheme, the ability to destroy companies, cost investors millions of dollars and devastate families is very plausible. Such crimes can generally be differentiated from others based on the use of deception, concealment and breaches of trust. The primary motivation behind white-collar crimes is usually monetary and includes reasons such as attaining or avoiding

While these accusations of money laundering are state-centric, there are also accusations the Vatican Bank’s statuses as an offshore financial center has been used by individuals and organizations to launder money, particularly from Italy. Italian investigations into money laundering through the Vatican Bank began in 2009. While investigations from Italian officials have since concluded, these issues illustrate how money laundering has followed the Vatican Bank into the 21st century.