Using Multiple Jurisdictions To Launder Money
Parking assets offshore in one jurisdiction and then exercising control over them through another, sometimes indicates money laundering. One example of how multiple jurisdictions were used to facilitate money laundering, is the case of U.S.A. v. Proceeds of Crime Transferred to Certain Domestic Financial Accounts, Index # 07-CV-21791, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. As mentioned by a July 16, 2007 press release, the Government commenced the U.S.A. case in order to forfeit $110 million which had been part of a tainted $400 million court award in Italy. According to both the foregoing press release and Reuters, the $400 million was tainted because the Italian Court awarded it after an interested party, (Mr. Angelo "Nino" Rovelli), had bribed its judges.
As an amended complaint in U.S.A alleged, Mr. Rovelli's wife Primarosa Battistella, had used Swiss bank accounts and three prominent lawyers, (Attilio Pacifico, Giovanni Acampora and Cesare Previti), to pay the bribes. After Mr. Rovelli died in 1990, Ms. Battistella finally inherited the tainted $400 million in January 1994. According to the amended complaint, she then had her accountant Mr. Pierfrancesco Munari, launder a substantial amount of it. Mr. Munari had allegedly placed the tainted money in financial institutions and /or business entities which acted as laundering links in: the United States; the British Virgin Islands; the Cayman Islands; Guernsey; Jersey; Switzerland; Luxembourg; Liechtenstein; Singapore; the Cook Islands and Costa Rica.
Some of the money laundered by Mr. Munari had allegedly been hidden in Florida via nineteen financial accounts. The government therefore asserted in U.S.A., that forfeiture was appropriate pursuant to the following:
- 18 U.S.C. §981 (a) (1) (A), (B) & (C)-- Asset forfeiture because of money laundering;
- 18 U.S.C. §984-- Asset forfeiture of identical property within one year of a laundering offense, etc;
- 18 U.S.C. §1956-- Money Laundering;
- 18 U.S.C. §1957-- Money Laundering of property from specified unlawful activity;
- 18 U.S.C. §2314-- Interstate or foreign transfer of property obtained by fraud;
- 28 U.S.C. §1345-- U.S. District Court jurisdiction where the Government is plaintiff;
- 28 U.S.C. §1355 (a)-- U.S. District Court jurisdiction over forfeiture proceedings;
- Italian Criminal Code Articles 319ter and 321, Bribery in judicial acts.
After the judge in U.S.A. froze / restrained numerous financial accounts in July 2007, Ms. Battistella and other Rovelli family members eventually executed a settlement agreement consenting to the forfeiture of thirteen accounts. As Mr. Munari's own settlement agreement further demonstrates, he too consented to forfeit an additional four accounts. Although on November 21, 2007 the Court issued a Final Judgment of Forfeiture regarding the total of seventeen financial accounts, there may still be some unresolved issues. According to Forbes.Com, a grand jury has been convened in Florida to examine whether Mr. Munari's money laundering scheme criminally involved: Wachovia; Citigroup; Merrill Lynch; Morgan Stanley; Lazard and others.
Copyright 2007-2008 Fred L. Abrams
