For professional reading skills money laundering trends in the european union

The money launderer changes the illicit proceeds from one form to another, often in rapid succession. The trend is towards acquiring tangible assets (such as cars, boats, aircraft, luxury items, real es­tate, and precious metals) with the bulk cash originating directly from criminal activity. Often, but not necessarily linked with off­shore centers the mechanism of shell or front companies has been detected These are entities that generally exist on paper. These legal entities are usually conducted specifically in order to carry out a wide range of criminal businesses such as financial fraud, especially in the United Kingdom and fraud against the European Union especially in the Netherlands, Belgium and Italy. They do not participate in actual commerce and are run by straw men, as often fraud in Italy. Their purpose is quite exclusively criminal and they often face a «law enforcement risk» from investi­gations about the real nature of their existence. This is the reason why they are closed down almost as soon as they are formed and often the accountancy books are physically eliminated in order to conceal any trace that could help future or further investigations.

Money launderers are ever more oriented towards the use of non-bank financial institutions which are still not completely or properly regulated in some European Union member stales. As they do not always come under the same obligation as the financial sector, because they are not allowed to undertake banking activities to earn interest, they are used especially at die placement stage for entering the cash into the financial market. There is evidence, espe­cially in the Netherlands, Italy and Belgium, of criminal groups moving from major commercial banks to those called second line banks and often operating accounts in the name of offshore companies. These include a wide variety of bureau of change, cheque cashing services, insurers, brokers, importers, exporters and other trading companies, gold and precious metal dealers, express deliv­ery services and other money movers. Casinos or gambling houses are used at the placement stage. Enquiries into stock broking mar­kets in Austria, Finland and the United Kingdom have, however, revealed that much illicitly gained money is laundered in this cir­cuit. A special mention has to be made of insurance companies which are increasingly popular laundering mechanisms, as in Germany, especially in the premium insurance bond sector.

Corruption and remedies against it

During a research recently carried out by TRANSCRIME on corruption in the 15 European Union countries, six main patterns of corruption and different patterns of criminal responses to corruption were outlined:

• systematic corruption (Italy. France, Spain and Belgium);

• emerging systematic corruption (Germany and Greece);

• sporadic corruption (Ireland, Austria and Portugal);

• casual corruption (the Netherlands, Finland, Denmark and Swe­den);

• English corruption (United Kingdom);

• managing others corruption (Luxembourg).

With reference to legal responses the main criteria used for this analysis were:

a) the definition of the crime of corruption;

b) the distinction between passive and active corruption;

c) the definition of passive and active subjects involved in the crime of corruption; and

d) sanctions.

The results show that there is less homogeneity with respect to the definition of the crime of corruption. The differences in definition are related to the fact that corruption takes on different forms in the various European countries, depending on each cultural and social context. It is important to study the cultural background of the various countries in order to discover the constant elements of corruption and thus to adopt the most effective preventive measures. For instance, when referring to «corruption prone environment» in Italy, we arc talking about a phenomenon that is deeply rooted in the cultural tra­dition of Italian society, in the sense that corrupt activities are practiced and accepted by normal citizens. The penal codes of the United Kingdom and Germany envisage various levels of corruption crimes (misdemeanors or felonies), according to the position held by the actor. Another distinction is related to the nature of the corruption act, in that it may be linked with, or contrary to the functional role of the actor. In the case of the passive receipt of a bribe by a public offi­cial in order to speed up a service fat which he/she is competent, the penalty of a fine is envisaged. On the other hand, a public official who authorizes the issuance of a licence although this is not under his/her competence, is committing an offence. In Austria (Article 304, paragraph 1), Denmark (Article 144), Finland (Article 40), Ger­many (paragraph 332), the Netherlands (Article 363) passive corrup­tion involving abuse of the public function is punished with a higher penalty than in the case of corruption that does not involve the abuse of a public function.