Section chief of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI’s) Criminal Investigative Division, Steven D’Antuono, has highlighted to legislators the serious threat of trade-based money laundering (TBML).

D’Antuono listed TBML second in a list of eight money laundering typologies that the FBI is concerned about in a statement to the Senate banking, housing, and urban affairs committee.

Commercial damage

In a statement entitled ‘Combating Money Laundering and Other Forms of Illicit Finance: Regulator and Law Enforcement Perspectives on Reform’, the section chief points out that as well as providing a means for criminals to move illicit funds, TBML also harms legitimate businesses.

“Transnational criminal organisations may dump imported goods purchased with criminal proceeds into the market at a discount just to expedite the money laundering process, putting legitimate merchants at a competitive disadvantage,” said D’Antuono.

“Drug trafficking organisations also use money brokers to facilitate TBML”, he added.

Economic damage

The UN Office on Drugs and Crimes estimates that annual illicit proceeds amount to more than US$2 trillion globally.

Proceeds of crime generated in the US were estimated at approximately US$300 billion in 2010, or about two per cent of the overall US economy at the time.

The full text of the statement entitled ‘Combating Money Laundering and Other Forms of Illicit Finance: Regulator and Law Enforcement Perspectives on Reform’ can be found here.