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Cash smuggling, use of fake companies, trading in fictitious goods or bank transfers through front accounts. These are the most common methods of laundering money from financial and economic crimes. Only a small fraction of the money laundered in Europe is discovered. Organized criminals are drug dealers, cigarette smugglers, VAT fraudsters, betting mafias and counterfeiters; are just a few of them.
The first report from Europol’s Financial and Economic Crime Competence Center estimates that: The police department confiscates less than two percent of the profits from crime. This amounts to a few percent of the overall EU economy, as “NZZ” writes.
The amount of confiscated funds increased significantly. The report states that 4.1 billion euros of funds obtained through crime were seized in 2020 and 2021. Europol investigated 24 countries. A much lower value of 2.4 billion euros had previously been assumed. Europol explains part of this increase as an increase in the fight against crime. However, the question also arises as to whether crime is increasing or not.
Almost 70 percent of criminal money laundering networks operating in the EU use “basic techniques”. The rest use professional money laundering services or the underground banking system. Professional money launderers steal 5 to 20 percent of the money laundered for their services.
Switzerland shows cooperation
If money flows outside the EU, for example into the countries of origin of criminal organisations, it becomes more difficult to confiscate it in a third country. This is the case with a significant proportion of illicit funds.
Switzerland is one of the third cooperative countries. “Cooperation with Switzerland at police level is excellent,” Burkhard Mühl, head of Europol’s Financial and Economic Crime Centre, tells “NZZ”. The competence center, which employs 84 employees, was opened by Europol in 2020. (kae)
Source :Blick
I’m Tim David and I work as an author for 24 Instant News, covering the Market section. With a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism, my mission is to provide accurate, timely and insightful news coverage that helps our readers stay informed about the latest trends in the market. My writing style is focused on making complex economic topics easy to understand for everyone.
