FRAMEWORK OF ANTI-MONEY LAUNDERING AND COMBATING OF FINANCIAL TERRORISM IN THE ECOWAS REGION
By
Oladeji Ifeoluwa Temilolu
1.0 Introduction
Money laundering as a form of cross border crime involves the use of legal tender in a financial transaction in order to conceal the origin, source or destination of such legal tender derived through illegal means. The sole aim of every money launderer is to misrepresent to any law enforcement authority or agency that the source of the funds are clean. As such it would be a difficult task for any enforcement authority to trace the source of the funds and by so doing the money launderers are able to escape prosecution or conviction.
The term money laundering has its origin grounded in the Mafia
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2.0 CONCEPTUAL CLASSIFICATION
The porosity of the borders of most ECOWAS countries has led to the mammoth rise in the rate of cross border crimes, ranging from drug trafficking, human trafficking, tax evasion to money laundering. This rise has not only expanded, but has multiplied these crimes to a more sophisticated type with a crippling effect on the local economy and international relations of these countries.
These increase can be linked to the ready ease with which humans and goods could travel between these ECOWAS countries, whilst the developments in technology has further facilitated the transfer of the proceeds from such criminal activities in ways hitherto unknown, this led to the swift rate at which money laundering amongst these countries developed5. Other economic and financial crimes, for example, drug trafficking and human trafficking also grew in limps and bounds, thus contributing to the growth in the incidence of money laundering and financial terrorism.
By reason of the fact that the global agenda to curb financial crimes calls for cooperative approach among countries in addressing these challenges, introducing a number of international legislations on money laundering and financial terrorism became a necessity. The treaties includes; the United Nation’s Convention against the Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances 1988, the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism
The globalization of crime has become a renowned problem for the law worldwide; as societies become more interconnected, an act in one country can have repercussions in another which is across another continent. This is primarily down to technological developments, as nowadays communication between countries is simple compared to decades ago. Alongside this transport is also a major problem, as it means that illegal activities can take place in more than one country as goods are transferred between the two, allowing the criminal world to reach all corners of the world.
Anthropologist and author of Global Outlaws: Crime, Money, and Power in the Contemporary World, Carolyn Nordstrom seeks to explore the connection between goods, money, and power in the global market of the twenty-first century. Seeking to explore “invisible (illegal) realities of global flows” (Nordstrom, xi) across multiple different continents, from the national to the global arena, reviewing traditional conceptions of the economy to fit twenty-first century realities. All whilst trying to determine who the real criminals, if there are any, in this globalized economy where “the line between legality and illegality is often blurred and when extralegal profiteering may also bring positive development and enable survival.” (Nordstrom, xiv)
Human trafficking has been entwined into the structure of governments, arms trade, drug trade, and even spreads as far as terrorism. For many years it has been a fact that the money that has been made by selling other humans to the highest bidder. It is also known that the organized crime operations generate one of the most profitable resources to the organization. These organizations use this money for theirs or other’s crime and end up in the hands of drug lords. Drug lords, in order to promote their own business give money to support terrorist groups and activities. Security after September 11, 2001 has recognized human trafficking as a national and international security risk.
The Bluefin Trevally is a species of large marine fish. The bluefin trevally can be found throughout the tropical waters of the Indian and Pacific Oceans. They grow to max length of 117 cm and a weight of 43.5 kg. The bluefin trevally can be found in both inshore environments such as bays, lagoons, and shallow reefs. As well as deeper offshore reefs, atolls and bomboras. They mainly eat fish but also eat cephalopods (mainly octopus and squid) and crustaceans like shrimp, stomatopods, and crabs.
Curbing the supply of funds to these organizations has been a major part of past efforts to counter international terrorism. The effectiveness of existing legislations and treaties and need for and nature of further measures are issues that need to be discussed.
In recent years, due to the threat it poses to human security, human trafficking has been identified as one of the major and fast growing transnational problems. It is also perceived as a form of modern slavery and one of the greatest human rights challenges of our times. Therefore, tackling human trafficking is highly prioritized in many countries (European Commission, 2009). In the last 20 years the occurrence of human trafficking has dramatically increased, and trade in human beings has become one large part of the illicit global economy. Many criminals see this type of transnational crime as a low risk- high reward crime, and this may be one of the reasons why they show a preference for it (Lee, 2007). The United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and Punish Trafficking in Persons, also known as the Palermo Protocol, adopted in 2000 defines human trafficking as: “The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a
Both domestic and international measures are somewhat effective in dealing with international crime. Both crimes against the international community and Transnational crimes represent both positive outcomes in dealing with international crime, thus, exemplify issues in key areas. Through intergovernmental organizations such as the International Criminal Court and Operation Sovereign Borders (OSB), international crime Is effectively dealt with. Hence, problems such as extradition and people smuggling are hard to contain. These four issues will also be discussed in light of key effectiveness criteria, including equality, access, resources and the protection of rights.
As per Adler, smuggling would be illegal migrants from less alluring countries to all the more promising terrains of opportunity, and it has turned into an enormous criminal enterprise, including a huge number of people, billions in assets paid to smugglers, and the loss of an extraordinary number of innocent lives (2013). Trafficking and smuggling are part of the business of terrorism, and constitute one crusade in the mix of terrorist groups. Terrorist smuggle drugs, arms, and people. Terrorism is an exorbitant business, and human trafficking is a standout amongst the most productive organized crime activities. For instance in Russia, the trafficking of females and young children is assessed to win six-billion dollars for every year.. Human trafficking was at one time a crime associated essentially with a scope of little to extensive crime groups, however as terrorist groups begun work more as organizations, we unfortunately watch the development of terrorist groups into this
The purpose of this essay is to convince my readers that human trafficking and human smuggling are not the same. It is important to identify these two key terms in an effort to better understand them. By doing this my readers will have a better understanding of why it is important to distinction them. Human trafficking and human smuggling are huge markets worldwide and as a result can provide many of those involved with an income. The amount of income that is produced annually due to human trafficking is not known. According to Feingold, the estimate provided by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime is $7 billion annually, while the Internal Labour Organization says that the income is about $32 billion (2005). As for human smuggling, no one is excluded. In order to get in depth of what was mentioned above, I will first get official definitions of what each key term is and then point out their differences.
In this research paper I will discuss one transnational crime, and compare the contrast of two nations for their definition of the crime rate, and tools used to measure the crime. I will give each country’s legal tradition and their major influences on crime definition, rate, and measurement. In this assignment I will analyze the extent to which crime statistics collected in different nations can adequately be compared.
The Illegal Drug Use, Prostitution, and Money Laundering are the extremely broad public issues on illegal activities. Criminal organizations engage in the illegal activities as a trade work. The prevalence of illegal activities is widespread; it is a continuous commerce through illegal means run by illicit transnational and multinational organizations. These illegal activities are the serious issues faced by the governments worldwide, individually and collectively. Every concerned citizen in a certain community is aware of the fast-growing incidents of illegal drug consumption, prostitution, and money laundering. The fast-growing illegal activities
Using the dominant motivation of organized crime, the United Nations in 1992, in addition to the questionnaire of the Fourth Survey on Crime Trends has requested information on 14 types of transnational organized crime: money laundering, terrorist activity, the theft of works of art and culture, intellectual property theft, illegal arms trade, capture aircraft, maritime piracy, seizing vehicles, fraud, computer crime, environmental crime, trafficking in human organs trafficking, drug trafficking .In The World Conference on organized crime in Naples in November 1994, the list was supplemented with illegal gambling, smuggling of illegal migrants, extortion, illegal trade in radioactive materials, illegal trade in endangered species, transnational
Since the September 11, 2001 terrorist’s attack, matters of national security have been on the headlines in political discussions. Due to this, there have been establishments between crimes that are not associated with the security of the country and that of national security. Indeed, human trafficking crime has been added recently to the list of crimes that are been studied for implications of national security.
Transnational crime is a growing problem. Transnational crime is defined as “self-perpetuating associations of individuals who operate transnational for the purpose of obtaining power, influence, monetary and/or commercial gains, wholly or in part by illegal means, while protecting their activities through a pattern of corruption and/ or violence, or while protecting their illegal activities through a transnational structure and the exploitation of transnational commerce or communication mechanisms.” (National Security Council, n.d.) . Transnational crimes are known under other names such as cross-national crime, global crime, international crime, and
I have found these concepts very interesting and practical. Within the last twelve months we have five new project managers join our team. All have a few years of experience under their belt, but have never held a formal leadership position. Over the last twelve months Joe, one of the five new employees has really started to be recognized as an upcoming superstar. Many of the project sponsors are requesting Joe to lead projects for their department, and also seems to have earned the respect of all his peers. Many times I have seen peers get jealous of someone that seems to be a natural born leader, but in this case Joe has moved into an informal leadership position with his peers. He also has been assigned to different teams and quickly become the informal leader or co-leader of each team. I believe it would be helpful to take a closer look at Joe’s cognitive skills, personality traits, and his motivation to lead. If we can determine that Joe does possess many of the skills and traits recognized in emerging leaders I am confident this knowledge will help the leadership team quickly recognize other emerging leaders that we would want to recruit into our organization.