Hawaladars
continue plying their paperless and trust-based trade - the transfer
of billions of US dollars around the world. American and Swiss banks
collaborate with dubious correspondent banks in off shore centres.
Multinationals shift money through tax free territories in what is
euphemistically known as "tax planning". Internet gambling outfits
and casinos serve as fronts for narco-dollars. British Bureaux de
Change launder up to 2.6 billion British pounds annually. The 500
Euro note will make it much easier to smuggle cash out of Europe. A
French parliamentary committee accuses the City of London of being a
money laundering haven in a 400 page report. Intelligence services
cover the tracks of covert operations by opening accounts in obscure
tax havens, from Cyprus to Nauru. Money laundering, its venues and
techniques, are an integral part of the economic fabric of the
world. Business as usual?
Not really. In retrospect, as far as money laundering goes,
September 11 may be perceived as a watershed as important as the
precipitous collapse of communism in 1989. Both events have forever
altered the patterns of the global flows of illicit capital.
What is Money Laundering?
Strictly speaking, money laundering is the age-old process of
disguising the illegal origin and criminal nature of funds (obtained
in sanctions-busting arms sales, smuggling, trafficking in humans,
organized crime, drug trafficking, prostitution rings, embezzlement,
insider trading, bribery, and computer fraud) by moving them
untraceably and investing them in legitimate businesses, securities,
or bank deposits.
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