Trade misinvoicing the most pervasive form of Chinese money laundering says GFI
Trade misinvoicing is possibly the most pervasive form of Chinese money laundering according to a new report published by Global Financial Integrity (GFI) which concludes that China plays an extremely impactful role as a source, transit and demand country in many of the most widespread…
TBML and IWT amongst four money laundering typologies drawing more attention
An analysis by consultants at Forensic Risk Alliance (FRA) of anti-money laundering (AML) trends and challenges has identified trade-based money laundering (TBML) and the illegal wildlife trade (IWT) as two of the four money laundering typologies that have recently received more attention from regulators and…
NFTs are a new way of TBML says top Dutch financial crime investigator
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs), the financial securities consisting of digital data stored in a blockchain, can be used in trade-based money laundering (TBML) operations according to Niels Obbink, chief and general director of the Fiscal Information and Investigation Service, the Dutch government agency responsible for investigating…
Pakistan and China agree to a single electronic customs portal to fight TBML
Pakistan’s new national single window customs portal, which allows traders to submit and access all relevant documents relating to a trade via a single electronic gateway, is to integrate with its Chinese counterpart after the customs authorities in the two countries agreed to form a…
Russian sanctions create incentives for TBML and illicit trade
Sanctions imposed on Russia create incentives for illicit trade schemes and trade-based money laundering (TBML) involving myriad of illicit methods according to an associate professor at the King’s Russia Institute in London. Alexander Kupatadze, who specialises in organised crime and corruption issues in post-Soviet Eurasia,…
TBML commonly used by migrant smugglers says new FATF report
Trade-based money laundering (TBML) is commonly used by migrant smugglers to disguise their criminal proceeds according to a new report published by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). The proceeds generated by migrant smuggling are estimated to exceed US$10 billion per year according to Money…
TBML extensively used to launder proceeds of frauds by Ghana-based criminal enterprise
Trade-based money laundering (TBML) was employed extensively by a Ghana-based criminal enterprise to obscure the origin of the proceeds of a variety of frauds perpetrated in the US, including romance scams targeting the elderly, business email compromise scams, and fraudulently obtained Covid-19 relief loans. The…
TBML increasingly a priority for financial institutions in Asia Pacific says new report
New research conducted by RegTech NICE Actimize and Regulation Asia, suggests that countering financial crime could move beyond well-used tools such as suspicious transaction monitoring and sanctions screening and focus on high risk areas, including trade-based financial crime. Other areas considered high risk include fraud…
Saudi Arabia successfully prosecutes six people after moves to curb TBML via interagency coordination and consolidation
Prosecutors in Saudi Arabia have successfully convicted six people who participated in a trade-based money laundering (TBML) operation involving expatriates and Saudi citizens. The convictions follow moves last year by the authorities to improve to streamline the Kingdom’s tax and customs operations and coordinate interagency…
Pakistan first country in the region to join Tradelens to strengthen TBML controls
Pakistan Customs has become the first authority in the region to sign an agreement with TradeLens, a blockchain-underpinned logistics platform supported by five out of six of the world’s largest ocean carriers to digitise import-export documentation of containerised cargo. Jointly developed by Maersk and IBM, the…
