We found the following articlehttp://www.economist.com/news/international/21601537-trade-weakest-link-fight-against-dirty-money-uncontained?frsc=dg%7C of particular interest, so we thought we’d share our views… . Trade Based Money Laundering (TBML) is defined as “the misuse of commerce to get money across borders”. The most common method is to misrepresent the value of goods exported or imported. The article mentions some examples: plastic buckets from the Czech Republic that supposedly cost $970 and sugar from Iran in one transaction was priced at $240 per pound. If the price is ‘almost right’ these sort of transactions will of course be difficult to detect. Just as the use of legitimate ‘re-invoicers’ makes it harder to find out if the underlying transaction is misused to transfer illicit funds from one country to another.
Since TBML uses legitimate transactions to hide illicit proceeds, financial institutions will have to guide staff involved in handling these transaction. Client facing bankers, branch staff and trade finance operations departments all need to be made aware of the potential practices employed by money launderers. The need for ongoing training cannot be overestimated!
iKYC has launched a TBML training last year and we’ve built up a bit of a reputation in the field. If you’d like to know more, don’t hesitate to contact us.
ROlf
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