The "Asset Search News Roundup" for this week explores the vital role financial institutions have in detecting assets concealed through money laundering. This kind of issue arose in a most recent phone conversation I had with an investigator who works for a Financial Intelligence Unit located offshore. The investigator had read one of my articles herein and decided to contact me for additional information about that article.
During our telephone conversation we ended up talking about one specific case which had involved a financial institution residing in the investigator’s jurisdiction. In that case, the financial institution had been used as a repository for the illicit proceeds of a financial fraud involving multiple jurisdictions. The financial institution had "washed" the illicit proceeds as a "laundering link" in a money laundering circuit.
The investigator mentioned that once the money laundering scheme was finally uncovered, employees of that particular financial institution had to be given additional training– presumably on spotting money laundering "red flags", reporting suspicious activity, etc. All of this highlights the critically important role employees at financial institutions have in detecting and / or preventing money laundering. I also examined this same role of some financial institutions in money laundering schemes, in the following articles:
- "A Tax Fraud & Identity Theft From Miami"
- "Concealing Cash By Laundering In Lithuania"
- "Fighting Financial Fraud At UK Banks"
Copyright 2009 Fred L. Abrams