In many ways, it usurps the previous Act, although there are some types of businesses that remain covered by the FTR. For example, some cash dealers will not be covered under the AML/CTF but are still obligated to report under FTR (Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre, 2008)
¶ … Luijerink & Maguire (2013), Australia's money laundering laws are among the world's toughest, particularly with regards to reporting requirements. Regulated entities are required to report all international electronic funds transfers, regardless of size (Luijerink & Maguire, 2013)
Two cases, one involving a drug courier driving across the border to Mexico border with $81,000 in cash in his car, the other a long-running illegal lottery that operated in bars and restaurants in northwestern Indiana, revolved around the 1986 Money Laundering Control Act. The Act defines money laundering as a financial transaction that "represents the proceeds of some form of unlawful activity" (Greenhouse 2008)
dollars in today's terms). The lower figure is considerably larger than an average European economy, such as Spain's" (Vaknin 2005)
The first stage involves depositing the drug proceeds into clandestine domestic and foreign financial institutions that do not seem obviously illegal. Sometimes the profits are broken up into small amounts, usually less than $10,000 to avoid currency reporting requirements or through creating sham companies, casinos, wire transfer companies, or simply smuggling the currency out of the United States in suitcases or concealing the cash in some other manner (Zagaris & Ehlers 2003)
Terrorism Narcoterrorism & Money Laundering Narcoterrorism is a modern reality. Terrorists often derive significant amounts of funding for their operations from the drug trade, leading many to conclude that illegal drugs facilitate terrorism (Blank, 2001)
This viewpoint is eroded by the realization that drugs hardly ever form a single backbone of terrorist funding -- it is quite often supplanted by other illegal operations such as kidnapping, extortion, money laundering, and human trafficking. Moreover, a successful trade in drugs requires territorial holdings to produce drug crops, something that modern terrorists like al Qaeda and others quite simply do not have (Felbab-Brown, 2006)
However, there was a still difference of opinion on this scope and commitment required to be given by each agency. At this time, 9/11 terrorist attack took place and the whole scenario changed with the formation of the Homeland Security Department (USGAO, 2003)
D. McLean defined money laundering as under (Rowan, et al
The FATF 40 recommendations are still the back bone on which the anti-money laundering work is carried out. In June 2003, the FATF issued a report revising the earlier recommendations of 1990, including their jurisdiction over several financial institutions (Myers, 1998)
884). Today, the laundering of proceeds from national and international criminal activities has become a lucrative and increasingly sophisticated enterprise in the United States and abroad and represents an essential element of organized criminal activities (April & Grasso, 2001)
Review and Discussion What is Money Laundering, Anyway? There are several definitions of money laundering. In general terms, "money laundering" can be defined as "The doing of a number of acts concerned with concealing, disguising or transferring out of the jurisdiction funds derived from drug trafficking, terrorism or criminal conduct" (Birks, 1995, p
A. Patriot Act also requires banks and large financial services centers, as well as brokers and dealers outside of banks, credit unions and money-transmitting businesses, to be aware of and report any suspicious financial activity (Carlson, 2003)
S. Treasury Department has been tasked with the responsibility for developing regulations for implementation of its money-laundering provisions and for financial services businesses, including mutual funds, credit card companies, and securities brokers and dealers registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (Connolly, 2003)
The goal of building a case against money laundering is to disrupt laundering in its many forms; this goal is particularly relevant concerning what is done by third-party money launderers and the masterminds of the criminal organizations that support them. In the process, the fight is supposed to undermine the process of financing and profiting from crimes ranging from drug trafficking to terrorism; however, the ongoing battle against money laundering has not provided policymakers with the effective tools they need to develop viable cases against them (Cuellar, 2003)
(CR-90-0069-01, District of New Jersey). In each of these multi-million dollar cases, the author reports that in spite of vigorous attempts to stop the money laundering practices of the criminal organizations involved, the participants simply waiting "until the dust settled" before finding alternative arrangements and resuming business as usual (Grosse, 2001)
While any of the foregoing current laws could be used in building a case against money laundering operations, the Money Laundering Control Act's ("the Act") expanded definition of "money laundering" activities has provided investigators with the ability to reach the proceeds of a broader range of illegal activities; for example, Lahey (2005) reports that the Act encompasses the proceeds of conduct that is characteristic of organized crime, such as narcotics trafficking, certain state offenses, and predicate offenses under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act ("RICO"). Furthermore, the Act addresses proceeds from a wide range of additional criminal offenses including copyright infringement, environmental offenses, espionage, trading with the enemy, and conducting financial transactions with intent to engage in violations of the Internal Revenue Code (Lahey, 2005)
60). Some of the provisions included in the Act enhancing surveillance procedures and the International Money Laundering Abatement and Antiterrorist Financing Act of 2001 (Ronczkowski, 2004)
Complex problems require complex solutions and the international community and United States alike have all developed a wide range of initiatives designed to combat money laundering. While the provisions and scope of these international and domestic laws differ, they share one fundamental commonality: "The fight against money laundering aims at a more effective enforcement of the criminal law in relation to profit-oriented crime" (Stessens, 2000, p
International Standards. The international community has enacted a number of substantive measures in the recent years to combat money laundering, including the following initiatives: Multilateral organizations have been created to develop anti-money laundering standards, mechanisms, and institutions; The United Nations pioneered the 1988 Vienna Convention Against the Trafficking in Illegal Narcotic and Psychotropic Substances contains the requirements to criminalize money laundering and immobilize the assets of persons involved in illegal narcotics trafficking; In 1989, the G-7 Economic Summit Group established the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), operates from the Office of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) headquarters in Paris and has issued a set of forty recommendations that concern legal requirements, financial and banking controls, and external affairs and issues an annual report that provides an overview of progress and problems in international anti-money laundering; The G-10 Basle Group of Central Banks has provided timely guidelines for central bank supervisors and regulatory controls and on September 23, 1997, issued guidelines on supervision; Regionally, the Council of Europe's 1991 Convention on Laundering, Search, Seizure and Confiscation of Assets has become the major international convention that requires signatory governments to cooperate against anti-money laundering; The European Union, as a signatory to the 1988 Vienna Drug Convention and based on its own initiatives to address financial crimes against the Communities, issued a 1991 Anti-Money Laundering Directive and recently issued another initiative targeting cybercrimes (Zagaris, 1999)