Money Laundering

card fraud. In reference to money Laundering we will the complex process of how criminals

It is also closely linked with “money laundering, document forgery, drug trafficking and international terrorism.”#

Money Laundering is the act of placing illegally acquired money in a legitimate business cash flow. This is done in order to be able to use that currency without law enforcement and the IRS questioning cash flow pertaining to a certain individual or corporation in question. This also considered a form of

Organized crime can be narrowed down to five unique areas of criminal activity. The first being racketeering, an umbrella term, meant to describe when any group or groups conduct one or more of the other criminal activities. One of the most successful ways the federal government has been able to hinder the actions of hardcore criminals is through the formation of the RICO Act (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations). The second area of major criminal activity is vice, or vice operations. This has to do with victim-less crimes such as drugs, gambling, and prostitution. Again, these crimes are highly problematic because it is the public that decides whether or not they prosper. It’s all too easy to build a case against someone breaking a law by importing huge quantities of controlled substances across a border, but it becomes much more difficult to stem the sale or need for such drugs once they have reached their intended destinations.

According to the U.S. Organized Crime Control Act of 1970: racketeering includes acts of bribery, embezzlement, federal drug offenses,

millions of dollars of structured settlements at a discounted price so that he could generate

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).

In order to successfully launder money three processes are needed: placement, layering, and integration. In the first state, placement, the illegal proceeding are disengaged from direct association with the crime or criminal. In the second stage, layering, the money is used in some legal financial transaction in order to “camouflage” the cash. In the third stage, integration, the apparently legal money is available to the money launder (Kelly, Maghan and Joseph). For better understanding, the fig 1 gives a real life example on how money laundering is done.

illegal acts which are characterized by deceit, concealment, or violation of trust and which are not dependent upon the application or threat of physical force or violence. Individuals and organizations

Madinger (2011) Argued that Civil asset forfeiture is the driving force behind money-laundering today is forfeiture.

When deemed appropriate, engaging in intricate financial manipulations accordingly, the perpetrators of organized crime may include corrupt business executives members of the professions, public offices, or

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

Money laundering is connected to drug trafficking because the individuals who are handling the drugs do not want to get caught, therefore attempt to move their funds into an actual business to seem legitimate (Abadinsky, 2014). Since the money drug traffickers generate through sales is technically illegal money, they turn to money laundering to protect the revenue (Abadinsky, 2014). “Money is laundered through currency exchange houses, stock brokerage houses, gold dealers, casinos, automobile dealerships, insurance companies, and trading companies” and much more (Abadinsky, 2014, p. 252). When money from drug trafficking is placed in

Embezzlement usually is a premeditated crime performed methodically, with the embezzler taking precautions to conceal his or her activities of the criminal conversion of the property of another person (Ponzi,2016), because the embezzlement is occurring without the knowledge

Trade based money laundering is defined as the process of disguising the proceeds of crime and moving value through the use of trade transactions in an attempt to legitimise their illicit origins[ Available at http://www.fraudaid.com/Dictionary-of-Financial-Scam-Terms/black_market_peso_exchange.htm (last visited on 28/03/2016)]. In practice, this can be achieved through the misrepresentation of the price, quantity or quality of imports or exports. Moreover, trade-based money laundering techniques vary in complexity and are frequently used in combination with other money laundering techniques to further obscure the money trail. Such a process is other wise known as Peso Broking[ Available athttps://www.fincen.gov/news_room/rp/advisory/html/advis12.html (last visited on 04/04/2016)]. Or, in other words, a system by