Introduction 1. Organized crime (Organized crime monitor) 2. Investment of crime proceeds (money laundering, misuse of corporate vehicles, real estate)
Organized crime monitor police files checklist How does it work?
Key findings Transit crime: rather than controlling sectors of economy or regions (like Mafia), misuse of legal infrastructure and economic infrastructure Transnational activities; investments in familiar territories. Pyramidal structures exception; Social ties: basic for criminal cooperation
Key findings Social embeddedness Legitimate occupations: breeding ground for criminal associations Local embedded
Damage Estimate CBS: 3.3 billion Euros (1% GDP) Drugs: 2 billion Euros Prostitution (woman trade) 660 million Illegal gambling 140 million
Crime proceeds Meloen: 52 cases; most of the investments in real estate In sectors familiar to the offenders: bars, hotels, brothels, houses/appartmenrts in familiar territories (Amsterdam not Kerkrade)
Money laundering The process that begins with proceeds of crime and ends with investments in the formal economy Three sequential elements: 1.placement (cash deposits); 2.layering (concealing criminal origin); 3.integration (converting into apparently legitimate earnings or loans
Corporate vehicles Limited, Societe Anonyme, Delaware Corporation, besloten vennootschap Separation between Individual A and his activities/funds lodged in Corporate Vehicles (Legal persons) Absence of personal liability (you can take risks) You can hide your fortune; split between judicial owner and ‘beneficial’ owner
Conclusions A hugh amount of crime proceeds (probably) Attitude: investment in real estate; familiar territories Legal forms (corporate vehicles) are easily misused for concealing origin, investing the proceeds of crime Diffuse distinctions between ‘illegal’ and ‘legal’ worlds Conflicts (extortion; disagreement) between offenders and ‘legitimate’ actors
Corporate vehicles Opportunities for misuse; it’s rather easy to misuse corporate vehicles (concealing the origin of the money; hiding your involvement; creating apparently legitimate reasons for converting crime proceeds into ‘clean’ money
Casus Housing Exchange office London/UK Account LTD A.Ltd/BVI Bank BVI B. SA Luxemburg Housing BV/NL Criminal org/NL Cash “Loan” Giro transfer