Digital finance is a money-launderer’s dream
Cutting-edge financial technology is fast becoming the handmaiden of organised crime, helping some of the world’s most dangerous crooks to move and hide ill-gotten gains. This situation will only get worse, unless governments and the technology industry can find common ground.
Money-laundering has a history almost as long as crime itself. But it became much more sophisticated during the cocaine-cowboy era of the 1980s, when narcotics flooded into America.
The traffickers’ laundering process had three stages: placement, layering and integration. Placement involves finagling the dirty money into legitimate finance. Drug cash can be mixed with earnings from, say, a restaurant or a casino.… Seguir leyendo »