Money Laundering In Latin America

In the last decades, narco trafficking and organized crime had emerged as the main security threats in Latin America. Deviant globalization increase their power by establishing connections with similar organizations in other parts of the world, like cocaine distribution networks, for example. This perceived danger increases the pressure on the governments for effective solutions, and some of them consider that these problems had overwhelmed the capabilities of the local police. Consequently, the intervention of military forces would be necessary to secure the stability of the countries. However, the use of force as the only solution is the outcome of a misunderstanding of the root causes that generates them. This paper presents the research for a general pattern in the region that is helpful to understand how the civil society perceives the failures of governance and how the networks of illegal activities exploit this perception.

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

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

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.

The evidence shows there’s more needed to eliminate transnational organized crime. Despite of the corruption, the United States are doing more to fight organized crime.

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

Although the term money laundering is relatively new, the concept goes back to around 67 AD. It is thought that the pirates smuggled and hid gold throughout the oceans. The pirates’ targets were European commercial vessels and were accomplished with the help of the British, French, and Dutch governments. This form of gold laundering went through the 16th and 18th centuries, until England offered pardons. These pardons allowed the pirates to keep their earnings, if they return to England and leave their pirate-like lifestyles (IMF). Similarly, on the other side of the world, Chinese merchants were too wealthy and needed to hide their profits. Commercial trading was prohibited, so this forced the bureaucrats to keep their funds safe through threats

46. This strategy by and large includes the utilization of genuine organizations with high money turnover, as fronts for lawbreakers to launder the returns of wrongdoing. The sorts of organizations utilized are by and large eateries, bars, correspondence focuses and different sorts of retail shops. The unregulated casual part likewise gives culprits the chance to procure little organizations, for example, second-hand auto dealerships, bars, eateries, gaming houses or land organizations, all of which give secrecy or chances to cover unlawful increases from their criminal birthplace.

Wages of Crime: Black Markets, Illegal Finance, and the Underworld Economy is a book by R. T. Naylor based on his views of organized crime and the government’s stance and involvement. Naylor writes from a mostly democratic point of view and presents his thesis quite clearly. Naylor's thesis in this book is that organized crime is a convenient myth handed to society by the government. In this book Naylor sets up four important concepts: first on the black market operations of guerrilla groups, second on the modern arms market, then on money laundering, and finally the underworld trade in gold. Throughout the book he talks about the critique of the public perceptions of organized crime, a discussion of anti-money laundering policies, and an analysis of terrorist financing.

Criminalisation is a central tenet of any credible anti-money laundering (AML) regime. The principal offences related to money laundering in Australia are contained in division 400 of the Criminal Code Act 1995(Cth) (the Criminal Code), which applies to both ‘proceeds’ and ‘instruments’ of crime. Recognising the wide array of channels used to launder funds, the provision is framed in broad terms and has been relied on to prosecute individuals in a variety of circumstances. This versatility has been acknowledged by the courts with the NSWCA in Milne v R asserting that ‘the money laundering offences in section 400 constitute a 21st century response to antisocial and criminal conduct commonly with international elements’. Through the remainder of this presentation I will outline the evolution and background of these offences, their elements, application, and

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

problem of transnational drug trafficking stimulated the creation of an international anti-money-laundering legal regime based on the premise that attacking the profits of such activities is the best strategy against large, multinational criminal organizations.(Bagley 1988) The international anti-money-laundering legal regime then gained momentum through such international agreements as the 1988 United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (UN Drug Convention). (Stewart 1989) . Another important cornerstone in the international anti-money-laundering legal regime was the creation of the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF)

Also as previously stated, the rise of technology has made it easier for organized crime groups to ship their money and assets abroad in order to avoid declaring income and paying taxes. Technology has made it easier for these groups to evade taxes easier by creating false financial accounts and sending their money to tax havens (Masciandaro (2000). "The Illegal Sector, Money Laundering and the Legal Economy: A Macroeconomic Analysis". Journal of Financial Crime 8 (2).

[Finally, the proof that financial gain and corruption are at the center of organized crime, is the amount of resources and money that has been leveled at this problem without being able to impede the growth of the organizations. Hence, there have been many politicians proven to have relationships with organized crime members. Those include Presidents John F. Kennedy, Richard M. Nixon, Ronald Regan, George H. W. Bush, and George W. Bush to name a few (Lyman & Potter, 2011). In the private business sector, respected institutions such as Shearson/American Express, Merrill Lynch, the Miami National Bank, Citibank, and others have participated in illicit business practices with organized crime members (Lyman & Potter, 2011). Some of the other