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Regulators May be Shifting Focus Toward Trade-Based Money Laundering
By Brian Orsak
printIn 1992, a private investor arrived in Sudan and, with the aid of the Sudanese government, founded several multinational companies that imported and exported goods from all over the world. These included a company that prepared leather, an importer of trucks and machinery, a bank and farms that produced corn, sorghum, honey and watermelons. The investor was little known outside of Saudi Arabia, where his father had amassed a fortune in the construction industry. But, unlike his father, Osama Bin Laden wasn't reaping the profits to build a personal fortune. Rather, he used his companies to earn money for terrorism...
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An expected U.N. plan to tackle illicit financial flows and other global problems could make curbing the manipulation of trade invoices an international priority.
Long considered one of the toughest illicit finance schemes to crack, trade-based money laundering is on the rise in response to stricter regulatory oversight of financial institutions, U.S. investigators said Monday.
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Three recently adopted international treaties drafted to foster trade between the Americas and Europe will also make it easier for financial criminals to launder money, say attorneys and former investigators.
Faced with raised compliance expectations, many large financial institutions are expanding the types of corporate clients they ask to implement anti-money laundering controls to include import-export businesses, payroll companies and payday lending firms.
Criminals are exploiting inadequate safeguards in free trade zones to launder money, evade taxes and illegally ship material used to build weapons of mass destruction, according to an intergovernmental group.
The U.S. Treasury Department's financial intelligence unit issued guidance Thursday on how to spot and report transactions tied to trade-based money laundering, a type of crime on the rise.
U.S. government investigators have become aware of a new subset of money laundering that takes advantage of the international market for professional services, according to a report issued by the U.S. State Department.
Financial institutions providing credit in international transactions should check for suspicious activity pointing to trade-based money laundering, a banking consortium said Thursday.
FATF's new president talks to reporter Larissa Bernardes about the organization's plans to revisit its 40 + 9 recommendations and address emerging money laundering threats.
Though headlines are focused on the subprime mortgage crisis and recessionary fears, criminals are still finding ways to launder funds, including through trade-based finance , says Elaine Carey, Senior Vice President and National Director of Control Risks, an independent risk consultancy office.
A federal judge's ruling that online auctioneer eBay is not responsible for determining whether items sold on its website are counterfeit is likely to increase online vulnerabilities to money launderers, say analysts.
Countries need to establish training programs to help bank regulators and law enforcement agents detect the growing problem of trade-based money laundering, FATF said in guidance issued Tuesday.
The United Kingdom may turn over trade data to U.S. officials in exchange for access to a U.S. computer system designed to detect trade-based money laundering, according to the British customs service.
Since 2000, organized criminal syndicates and terrorist organizations have "dramatically" increased efforts to counterfeit goods, a crime that can be both highly profitable and difficult to detect, money laundering experts say.
Technological developments offer governments unprecedented ability to address trade-based crime. But there's a problem, according to Nikos Passas, a professor who studies financial crime at Boston-based Northeastern University: governments aren't utilizing available tools.
The growth of the online auction industry, which is not subject to anti-money laundering requirements, has translated into opportunity for criminals to launder ill-gotten cash because there are few checks on the legitimacy of online transactions, say AML compliance professionals.
The Financial Action Task Force, the global anti-money laundering watchdog, may issue a formal recommendation on standards to minimize the use of international trade to help launder money and finance terrorism, a person familiar with the organization says.
Marc Hambach, an assistant director of the Dubai Financial Services Authority and head of its AML department, spoke with reporter Brian Orsak about the process of developing regulations for one of the fast growing financial hubs in the world.
After a two-year delay, the U.S. government on Thursday released an anti-money laundering (AML) strategy focused on nine areas including money services businesses and trade-based finance. It did not include plans for combating terrorist financing, a break from previous strategies.