Financial Crime Online

Last Thursday UNODC launched the report “The Globalization of Crime: A Transnational Organized Crime Threat Assessment“. It shows how organized crime has globalized and turned into one of the world’s foremost economic and armed powers. “..Among the findings in the new report, which features a number of high-impact maps and charts that illustrate illicit flows [...]

A new U.S.-Mexico government study estimates that $19 billion to $29 billion is shipped south, then laundered through cash purchases of land, luxury hotels, cars and other high-end items. Remember the recent arrest of Cancun mayor for aiding criminal groups setting up shop in Cancun? The amount of money involved shows the (financial) power of [...]

Reuters reports that the mayor of the Mexican beach resort of Cancun has been arrested and charged with money laundering and drug-related crimes, making him one of the highest-ranking public officials swept up in Mexico’s crackdown on narcotics traffickers. “He was moving so much money and it just didn’t match up with the amount he [...]

A decade after its introduction, the 500 euro bill has taken a leading role in the world of dirty money. An internal Bank of Italy report warned last year about the mafia’s use of the note, saying it was just adding to the national problems of tax evasion. It is globally the money launderers favorite [...]

Wells Fargo & Co’s Wachovia Bank agreed to cough up $160 million to end a criminal money laundering probe into the use of its exhange houses in Mexico by drug cartels. The government agreed to defer prosecution on a criminal charge that Wachovia did not set up an effective anti-money laundering program from 2003 to 2008. [...]

In crime reporting the attention is usually drawn to the ‘latest and greatest’. Spectacular stuff. Medicare fraud seems boring; not the place a cop would want to spend his career? Let’s view it from a criminal’s point of view; risk and reward. Medicare fraud nets billions, without the risks of getting shot or ripped. Medicare [...]

Most countries ban some types of gambling. The type of gambling ‘games’ that are allowed are usually strictly regulated and mostly (semi) government owned. That does not mean that the odds are fair. In sports betting, game rigging is a real concern. And obviously, when you speak about big bucks, there will be big criminals [...]

Two alleged hackers in their twenties and an unknown “Hacker 3″ have been indicted on charges of hacking into a computer network operated by the Atlanta-based credit card processing company RBS WorldPay. The indictment alleges that the group used sophisticated hacking techniques to compromise the data encryption that was used by RBS WorldPay to protect [...]

Quebec police continued their crackdown on corruption in the province’s construction industry yesterday, arresting 10 people allegedly tied to what authorities say is a vast money-laundering operation headed by the Hells Angels biker gang.  The plan, police say, was to create a consortium of masonry companies as part of a conspiracy to corner the market [...]

The ‘Wired’ October issue has an article on skimming; “What’s your magstripe worth?”. Florida is apparently a hotspot for skimming. It could also be the case that skimming is prevalent all across the US and Florida is just a bit more aggressive in prosecution. A review of some Florida court cases show how much (or: [...]