The terrorist attacks in Washington, London, New Delhi or in Mumbai
involved excellent planning, preparation, enormous financial transactions and processes
and the extraordinarily dishonest intellect. Since September 11, 2001 the discussion
on terrorism and organized crime has turned into a new dimension: an economic
issue of technical nature has become a political issue with national security subtext.
How are these activities being operated?; and who is carrying out these
activities? Underground economy, black money and money laundering is the core of
these questions. Apart from that, sports such as cricket, hockey and football are also
used as tools of money laundering. This paper discusses the methods and process
of money laundering with some examples. The paper also focuses on
the macroeconomic effects of money laundering. The concluding section of this
paper offers some suggestions to combat the problem of money laundering.
The problem of accounting the illegal finance in a legitimate, governmental
and transparent accounting system is increasing concern with regard to
deterrence, exposure and prosecution for most of the economies in the world.
Complicated financial tools and innovative accounting and statistical methods used to
launder the finance and to finance the terrorist activities adds more to the complications.
New complicated and innovative methods may engage different types of
financial institutions; numerous financial dealings; the exercise of mediators, such as
economic consultant, accountants, shell companies and other service providers; transfers
to, through, and from different countries; and the use of different financial
instruments and other kinds of value-storing assets. |
