The international community loses hundreds of billions of dollars every year due to trade-based money laundering, says a US report which identifies China, Russia, Mexico and India as the top four sources of illicit financial outflows.
The practice also costs Pakistan more than $10bn a year.
The US State Department’s International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, released a couple of days ago, refers to TBML (trade-based money laundering), the process by which criminals use a legitimate trade to disguise their criminal proceeds from their unscrupulous sources.
This practice allows traders and the currency mafia to launder hundreds of billions of dollars every year. It is one of the most sophisticated methods of cleaning dirty money and TBML red flags are among the hardest to detect.
In Pakistan, estimates of illicit financial flows put over $10bn as escaping taxation and being siphoned off outside the country. This is with nearly one-third of the population living below the poverty line.
The report identifies India as the fourth largest source of illicit financial outflows in the world. It notes that India’s main money laundering vulnerability comes from a widespread lack of access to formal financial institutions, particularly in the rural sector, that has resulted in the growth of informal financing networks.
The report also refers to a study by a United States think-tank, the Global Financial Integrity (GFI), which estimates that India loses up to $51bn every year due to illicit financial outflows.
China tops the GFI list with $139bn average outflow of illicit finances per annum, followed by Russia ($104bn) and Mexico ($52.8bn).
The section on Afghanistan notes that terrorist and insurgent financing, money laundering, bulk cash smuggling, abuse of informal value transfer systems and other illicit activities financing criminal activity continue to threaten the country’s security and development.
“Afghanistan remains the world’s largest opium producer and exporter. Corruption remains a major obstacle to the nation’s progress,” – the report says.
It notes that Afghanistan’s National Unity Government has enacted laws and regulations to combat financial crimes, but faces a significant challenge in implementing and enforcing them.
The report also advises India to consider the regulation of traditional money transfer methods and further facilitate the development and expansion of new payment products and services, including mobile banking.
It notes that the most common money laundering methods in India include opening multiple bank accounts to hide funds, intermingling criminal proceeds with licit assets, purchasing bank cheques with cash and routing funds through complex legal structures.
Transnational criminal organisations in India use offshore corporations and TBML to disguise the criminal origins of funds and companies use trade-based money laundering to evade capital controls. Illicit funds are sometimes laundered through real estate, educational programmes, charities and election campaigns.
Laundered funds in India are derived from trafficking of narcotics and people and illegal trade, as well as tax avoidance and economic crimes.
Counterfeit Indian currency has also been a problem.
The report notes that in November 2016, the Reserve Bank of India demonetised the 500- and 1,000-rupee notes and introduced new banknotes to try to crack down on “black money” stemming from corruption, tax evasion and other illicit financial activities. While this action addresses the problem of counterfeit currency, it does little to mitigate long-term money laundering risks.
It complains that US investigators have had limited success in coordinating the seizure of illicit proceeds with Indian counterparts.
This article originally appeared on Dawn and has been reproduced with permission.
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$10 Billion Dollar, 1 Billion = 1000 Million = PKR 10 KHARAB Only (Estimated) :
$10 Billion Dollar K Aghe to AYAN Ali to Phir Bechari Howi Na !
Waiting for on top Position !
Long Live Pakistan Specially Sahreef Khandan !
Apna Sapna Money Money !
@aamir7:disqus what is it Aamir Atta, no quality on checking comments? One comment on a post seems to be right, but multiple comments that no make sense are pure spam.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/798ce0ce76a0e5d2c1667fa023352f0096dd5686aab5ee026a003f0d510b0c9b.png
@AAM1R:disqus Bhai
Also check the Quality of Commenter who are using abusing & informal words in articles. Specially in my Comments ( Main ne Ghalat Nahi Kaha Kisi Ko)
No one see that but Mere Comments Pe Quality A Gayi ???
They are abusing you because of your comments that you do. I have some suggestions for you:
1. If you want to increase the number of comments, you can go to the previous 5000+ articles of Propakistani, start commenting there.
2. You should never comment more than once, you can write everything in a single comment instead of separately.
3. What are you doing here, you will never been seen as a respected member. Previously, I liked to read your comments, now I don’t read a single one. The same goes for the millions of people that visit ProPakistani.
4. It seems you write comments without reading the article that doesn’t make sense.
5. If you want to write a comment on every post then you must write in pure English, and must be to the point and have some logic. Title: Pakistan Loses $10 Billion a Year To Money Laundering Your Comment: Apna Sapna Money Money!
You can be blocked soon if you keep commenting without any sense.
@Aamir. Why you are imposing your rules on commenter. You have to implement AI on your website. You need to validate all comments before accepting, there should be team from your’s side.
You can’t restrict any one like that. Yeah you can guide them for best practices. I would like to suggest you to post an article for best practices.
Also pointing out any one by replying such is not professional. You can email/ private message him.
I have explained this to him before. This strict message came after several warnings.
10 billion $ to Pakistanio ke sar charha inn haram khoro ne to kha ke bhag jana hai
Ishaq Dar has self confessed about money laundering. He should be investigated in the first instance n immediately. He’ll surely reveal the names of his bosses n companions.
if the finance minister is himself involved in money laundering, Why he would take action against it.
I bet the report said more about the No.1’s position a lot more. But, allocating more than half the article for No.4 seems to be licking the master’s shoe. Even more the article said more about India than Pakistan. Seems, “Propakisani” means ignoring Pakistan’s bad, and highlighting India’s. Interesting!!