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In Weakly-Governed Somalia, Mobile Remittances Offer Means to Launder Ransoms
By Colby Adams
printSomali pirates are exploiting remittance services offered by regional telecommunications companies to launder the proceeds of kidnapping and other crimes, according to the World Bank. In a 106-page report on the economics of piracy, the intergovernmental group said that incarcerated and reformed pirates had outlined in interviews how they abused telecom-backed mobile payments inside Somalia. While Somali telecoms generally restrict remittances to $2,000 per person over a certain period, some have allowed clients to remit as much as $100,000 at one time, the report said. Investigators in the country must "depend on the goodwill of telecom companies" to analyze SIM...
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