Money Laundering

Money Laundering

Michael F. Adamson CJ 2400 Organizational and Occupational Crime Curry College

Money Laundering

Money laundering, in its most basic form, is the process by which large amounts of illegally obtained money is given the appearance of having originated from a legitimate source. There are many methods in which this can be accomplished and criminals are constantly coming up with new ideas on how to do so. If done successfully, it allows the criminals to maintain control over their “proceeds” and ultimately provide a legitimate cover for their source of income. Money laundering is tied to both white collar crimes as well as violent crimes and it can have a destabilizing effect to the economy. Given the various methods by which the crime can be facilitated, as well as the original crimes that bring forth the revenue, combating the issue involves a multi-agency approach.
Any criminal who benefits financially from crime is going to look for a way to legitimize his/her proceeds. This is the same for the bank clerk who is embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars through the click of a button or the drug traffickers earning millions at the pull of a trigger. For years, the Italian Mafia has been earning billions of dollars by way of force and violence and have washed that blood soaked money through methods that give an appearance of a legitimate organization, such as real estate, restaurant purchases or Laundromats (no pun intended). The laundering of the ill gotten gains of any criminal is limited only by his or her creativity. One method, used frequently by drug traffickers, involves breaking up large amounts of cash into transactions that each amount to less than $10,000 to avoid currency reporting requirements. Other laundering schemes involve casinos, purchasing of gems and precious metals, wire transfer companies, and smuggling smuggling, illegal transport across state or national boundaries of goods or persons liable to customs or to prohibition. Smuggling has been carried on in nearly all nations and has occasionally been adopted as an instrument of national policy, as by Great Britain currency out of the countryUnited States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area.
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The same can be said for individuals who have obtained their proceeds through white collar offenses; such as, embezzlement, identity theft, and fraud. These non-violent crimes generate billions of dollars each year and are often committed by educated people with advanced knowledge of banking laws. Therefore many white collar criminals will open several accounts in the names of family members and possibly friends at several financial institutions and deposit small amounts of currency in each account. The deposited amount in these situations may be less than $1,000 on a daily basis or $2,000 to $3,000 twice or possibly three times a week. These deposited amounts remain below the thresholds of any known internally developed monitoring system and would probably only be detected using comprehensive technology along with a compliance team.

The means by which money can be obtained illegally is endless. The complexity in the manner in which money laundering is effected can be overwhelming and nearly impossible to track by one agency. Furthermore, certain agencies can only enforce the laws by which are within their jurisdiction. It is of critical importance that governments include all relevant agencies in developing a plan to combat the problem. They should, for example, bring law enforcement and financial regulatory authorities together with the private sector to enable financial institutions to play a role in dealing with the problem. Many money laundering operations not only cross state and national lines, but international ones as well. This is why a multi-agency task force approach to combating of illegal money laundering operations is the best approach in dealing with the problem. Partnerships need to be formed and put into place so that the crime can be looked at and analyzed through different interest groups. A multi-agency task force comprised of local, state and federal agencies, as well as investigative teams from organizations and companies who have been found to be impacted in the money laundering process, can streamline and strengthen the entire investigation through advanced resource allocation.