Download or read book The Role of Domestic Shell Companies in Financial Crime and Money Laundering written by Department of Department of the Treasury and published by CreateSpace. This book was released on 2014-11-20 with total page 26 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By virtue of the ease of formation and the absence of ownership disclosure requirements, shell companies - generally defined as business entities without active business or significant assets - are an attractive vehicle for those seeking to launder money or conduct illicit activity. While business entities generally, and shell companies specifically, have legitimate commercial uses, this lack of transparency in the formation process poses vulnerabilities both domestically and internationally. The advantages of using these business entities for legitimate business purposes are in some senses outweighed by the potential for abuse presented by some entities, and by the risks to and potential deleterious effects on the financial system that result from lack of transparency regarding beneficial ownership. Although the focus of this paper is on limited liability companies, other business entities, including trusts, business trusts, and corporations, are also vulnerable to abuse. The intent is to demonstrate the nature of the vulnerabilities that limited liability companies present, provide examples of known abuses, and present some specific steps which can be taken to reduce the risk to the financial system while preserving the advantages of limited liability companies for legitimate business use. It is anticipated that attention will be given in the future to studying other business entities which are subject to abuse and illicit use as shell companies or to otherwise mask ownership for illicit purposes. This report does not attempt to address tax policy issues regarding shell companies. The vulnerabilities addressed are those that relate to the use of shell companies to facilitate money laundering and financial crime in general.
Download or read book The Puppet Masters written by Emile van der Does de Willebois and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2011-11-01 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report examines the use of these entities in nearly all cases of corruption. It builds upon case law, interviews with investigators, corporate registries and financial institutions and a 'mystery shopping' exercise to provide evidence of this criminal practice.
Download or read book Global Shell Games written by Michael G. Findley and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2014-01-23 with total page 275 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Every year a staggering number of corporate service providers mask perpetrators of terrorist financing, corruption and illegal arms trades, but the degree to which firms flout global identification standards remains unknown. This book sheds new light on the sordid world of anonymous shell corporations through a series of field experiments.
Download or read book Methods of Money Laundering written by Fabian Teichmann and published by Kluwer Law International B.V.. This book was released on 2021-10-08 with total page 253 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How exactly is money laundered? The answer to this question is not well understood – and for this very reason, costly prevention measures remain ineffective. This much-needed book provides the first in-depth explanation of the methods used by intelligent criminals to amass wealth from large-scale trafficking in drugs, arms, and human beings, as well as from less odious crimes. The author shows clearly not only why existing approaches to combat money laundering are bound to fail but also how money launderers easily circumvent such measures. Based on qualitative interviews with both alleged criminals and prevention experts, detailed illustrations of concrete steps taken by intelligent and specialized perpetrators of money laundering allow practitioners to anticipate and effectively combat this type of crime. The author fully documents such aspects of money launderers’ behaviour as the following: resources required; dealing with detection risks; and international mobility. A central chapter covers in depth the various markets, institutions, and facilities that are particularly favourable to money laundering, and original insights accompany the presented findings with relevant quotations from the interviewees. The author offers tailored recommendations for different professional groups, including bankers, prosecutors, defence lawyers, and judges. In its critical questioning of the logic behind anti-money laundering regulations and their costly implementation, the book demonstrates that either the existing measures of prevention are drastically tightened and extended to almost all branches of the economy or the financial sector is relieved of the burden it bears and alternative ways of fighting this type of crime are sought instead. It will prove enormously valuable to understanding and investigating white-collar and financial crime, and be welcomed by practitioners and professionals in financial markets, banking, criminal lawyers, and compliance experts, as well as academia.
Download or read book The Money Laundry written by J. C. Sharman and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2011-10-15 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A generation ago not a single country had laws to counter money laundering; now, more countries have standardized anti–money laundering (AML) policies than have armed forces. In The Money Laundry, J. C. Sharman investigates whether AML policy works, and why it has spread so rapidly to so many states with so little in common. Sharman asserts that there are few benefits to such policies but high costs, which fall especially heavily on poor countries. Sharman tests the effectiveness of AML laws by soliciting offers for just the kind of untraceable shell companies that are expressly forbidden by global standards. In practice these are readily available, and the author had no difficulty in buying the services of such companies. After dealing with providers in countries ranging from the Seychelles and Somalia to the United States and Britain, Sharman demonstrates that it is easier to form untraceable companies in large rich states than in small poor ones; the United States is the worst offender. Despite its ineffectiveness, AML policy has spread via three paths. The Financial Action Task Force, the key standard-setter and enforcer in this area, has successfully implemented a strategy of blacklisting to promote compliance. Publicly identified as noncompliant, targeted states suffered damage to their reputation. Subsequently, officials from poor countries became socialized within transnational policy networks. Finally, international banks began using the presence of AML policy as a proxy for general country risk. Developing states have responded by adopting this policy as a functionally useless but symbolically valuable way of reassuring powerful outsiders. Since the financial crisis of 2008, the G20 has used the successful methods of coercive policy diffusion pioneered in the AML realm as a model for other global governance initiatives.
Download or read book Failure to Identify Company Owners Impedes Law Enforcement written by United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Failure to identify company owners impedes law enforcement hearing written by and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on with total page 380 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Reference Guide to Anti money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism written by Paul Allan Schott and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2006 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Efforts to launder money and finance terrorism have been evolving rapidly in recent years in response to heightened countermeasures. The international community has witnessed the use of increasingly sophisticated methods to move illicit funds through financial systems across the globe and has acknowledged the need for improved multilateral cooperation to fight these criminal activities. The World Bank and International Monetary Fund have developed this guide to help countries understand the new international standards. It will hopefully serve as a comprehensive source of practical information for countries to fight money laundering and terrorist financing. It discusses the problems caused by these crimes, the specific actions countries need to take to address them, and the role international organizations, such as the Bank and the IMF, play in the process. This guide is a tool for countries to establish and improve their legal and institutional frameworks and their preventive measures according to international standards and best practices. -- From Foreword (p. ix).
Download or read book Transnational Legal Ordering of Criminal Justice written by Gregory Shaffer and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-07-02 with total page 411 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A new approach for studying the interaction between international and domestic processes of criminal law-making in today's globalized world.
Download or read book Federal Money Laundering Regulation written by Steven Mark Levy and published by Wolters Kluwer. This book was released on 2003-01-01 with total page 1683 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Federal Money Laundering Regulation: Banking, Corporate and Securities Compliance is a comprehensive guide to understanding and complying with all U.S. legislation and regulatory requirements governing money laundering. Carefully written and well-organized, this book is the most authoritative but practical publication available in this subject area. Users of the book include banks, credit unions, securities broker-dealers, casinos, money services businesses, futures commission merchants, mutual funds, insurance companies and other financial institutions and their legal counsel, As well as regulatory and law enforcement agencies, The criminal bar, public accountants, and federal and state courts. The easy-to-use looseleaf format allows the reader to keep the volume up to date as annual supplements are issued. The current volume has approximately 1100 pages, organized in 27 chapters. Read the highlights in the latest supplement for Federal Money Laundering Regulation: Banking, Corporate and Securities Compliance .
Download or read book Financial Intelligence Units written by International Monetary Fund and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2004-06-17 with total page 154 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the past decade and beyond, the need for a modern anti-money-laundering strategy has become widely accepted internationally. Depriving criminal elements of the proceeds of their crimes has increasingly been seen as an important tool to combat drug trafficking and, more recently, as a critical element in fighting organized crime, corruption, and the financing of terrorism, and maintaining the integrity of financial markets. The first few financial intelligence units (FIUs) were established in the early 1990s in response to the need for countries to have a central agency to receive, analyze, and disseminate financial information to combat money laundering. Over the ensuing period, the number of FIUs has continued to increase, reaching 84 in 2003. This handbook responds to the need for information on FIUs. It provides references to the appropriate Financial ActionTask Force (FATF) standards wherever appropriate.
Download or read book Governing Borderless Threats written by Shahar Hameiri and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2015-07-16 with total page 287 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Non-traditional', border-spanning security problems pervade the global agenda. This is the first book that systematically explains how they are managed.
Download or read book Chasing Dirty Money written by Peter Reuter and published by Peterson Institute for International Economics. This book was released on 2004 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Originally developed to reduce drug trafficking, efforts to combat money foundering have broadened over the years to address other crimes and, most recently, terrorism. In this study, the authors look at the scale and characteristics of money laundering, describe and assess the current anti-money laundering regime, and make proposals for its improvement. -- From back cover.
Download or read book Preventing Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing written by and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2009 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Money laundering and terrorist financing are serious crimes that affect not only those persons directly involved, but the economy as a whole. According to international standards, every bank has the obligation to know its customers and to report suspicious transactions. Although these obligations sound straightforward, they have proved challenging to implement. What information precisely has to be gathered? How should it be recorded? If and when does one have to file a suspicious transaction report? It is here that a supervisor can play a crucial role in helping supervised institutions; first, in understanding the full extent of the obligations of Customer Due Diligence and Suspicious Transaction Reports (STR) and, second, in ensuring that those obligations are not just words on paper but are applied in practice. Effective supervision is key to the success of a country's AML/CFT system. In this regard, field work in both developed and developing countries has shown an overall low compliance in the area of supervision of banks and other financial institutions; supervisory compliance is indeed generally lower than the average level of compliance with all Financial Action Task Force recommendations. As a result, by providing examples of good practices, this book aims to help countries better conform to international standards. In this regard, this handbook is specifically designed for bank supervisors.
Download or read book Dictators Without Borders written by Alexander A. Cooley and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2017-02-07 with total page 314 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A penetrating look into the unrecognized and unregulated links between autocratic regimes in Central Asia and centers of power and wealth throughout the West Weak, corrupt, and politically unstable, the former Soviet republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan are dismissed as isolated and irrelevant to the outside world. But are they? This hard-hitting book argues that Central Asia is in reality a globalization leader with extensive involvement in economics, politics and security dynamics beyond its borders. Yet Central Asia’s international activities are mostly hidden from view, with disturbing implications for world security. Based on years of research and involvement in the region, Alexander Cooley and John Heathershaw reveal how business networks, elite bank accounts, overseas courts, third-party brokers, and Western lawyers connect Central Asia’s supposedly isolated leaders with global power centers. The authors also uncover widespread Western participation in money laundering, bribery, foreign lobbying by autocratic governments, and the exploiting of legal loopholes within Central Asia. Riveting and important, this book exposes the global connections of a troubled region that must no longer be ignored.
Download or read book Suspicious Activity and Currency Transaction Reports written by United States. Congress. House. Committee on Financial Services. Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book International Narcotics Control Strategy Report written by and published by . This book was released on 1991 with total page 406 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
