Organised criminals are increasingly looking to the internet as a
means of laundering the proceeds of crime, according to a new
report. On-line banking and gambling sites are used to clean
otherwise dirty money.
Money laundering involves taking funds obtained through unlawful
means and passing those funds through a series of companies and
bank accounts to disguise their illegitimate origin. A report on
recent trends in money laundering by the Financial Action Task
Force (FATF) says that money launderers are using the internet to
clean up dirty cash.
FATF was set up by the G7 group of major industrialised nations.
Its report says that on-line banking and gambling are the areas of
greatest activity. The speed of on-line transactions, world-wide
access to the internet and the reduction in direct contact with the
customer are cited as principal factors which make the internet
attractive to criminals.
In a separate report yesterday, a Subcommittee of the US Senate
cited 4 of the 6 largest banks in the US as having inadequate money
laundering policies and procedures. Bank of America, JP Morgan
Chase, Citibank and First Union were the named institutions. The
Subcommittee says that the banks are failing to monitor access of
foreign banks to the US domestic banking network.
