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CONFESSIONS OF A
MONEY LAUNDERER by Kenneth Rijock
MONEY LAUNDERER by Kenneth Rijock
Financial Crime Consultant, for World-Check
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 62
27 April 2008
Then there was the time I was engaged by a major television network to set up and operate an undercover operation targeting money laundering lawyers working in Caribbean Tax Havens, for broadcast on a popular prime-time programme that specialised in investigative journalism. The theme was to demonstrate that that offshore financial centres were still accepting illicit cash. Several that were blacklisted by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) had enacted anti-money laundering laws, created Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs), and ultimately been taken off the list. My task was to show that these "reforms" amounted to little more than window dressing, and that, when dirty money presented itself, it would be eagerly accepted by local lawyers, who had the ability to place the same in offshore banks affiliated with them.
Here is how it happened:
Next week; more undercover work comes my way.
- One of the producers of the programme came down to Miami, and we spent a couple of hours discussing alternative ways in which to conduct the operation whilst dining at a quiet location at the airport. When he was satisfied that I could plan out, staff and successfully supervise the project, he flew back to New York to organise the production crew, and I set to work composing the lines of dialogue that our 'criminals" would be speaking to our lawyer-targets to convince them that they had money to hide in the tax havens. The network would supply cash, which we could launder, and send it back to ourselves, to show how things had really not changed much in the tax havens of the Caribbean.
- I next went looking for a suitable individual to pass as a person with flight capital that he had to secrete in an offshore financial centre that was not to particular about its clients. I had someone immediately in mind: a survivor of the 1980s Miami drug scene, he had gone straight, and become religious, after a brush with death that had left him with a bullet scar running diagonally across his throat. His brother had spent a substantial time in prison on drug charges, under difficult circumstances, and his family's ordeal also served to cause him to change his ways, lest he also suffer that fate. My casting choice also looked a lot like Osama Bin Laden, complete with beard, though he was a Cuban-American.
- The other member of the team was picked up by the producer from a New York company that provided undercover cameramen (or -women) for surreptitious operations. In this case, she was to pose as his girlfriend, but her outfit was equipped with a small cameras in the bridge of her sunglasses, and in the flower protruding from her handbag, and it also featured microphones, with transmitters inside that purse.
- I choose the Caribbean island of St. Christopher, more commonly known as St. Kitts, because not only was I familiar with the methods of placing illicit wealth there, I also had personally worked with some of the lawyers in the old days. I even had one in mind; now a prominent advocate, he commanded high fees, and travelled widely in the region. We would sting him on camera, and show the sordid scene to the American television audience. That lawyer could not very well come into the US and file suit, because he was liable to be arrested for his past activities.
- Myself and "Bin Laden" met the production crew at Miami International Airport and we flew down into St. Maarten. Our original plans were to photograph our cast of two taking a catamaran into St. Kitts, but the inclement weather caused us to scrub that for a light plane into the neighboring island of Nevis. Nevis, which is actually federated with St. Kitts, is a former British possession that was a huge sugar plantation back during the colonial era. It was perfect for our base; only a couple of short miles to St. Kitts via boat, but away from prying eyes. Besides, they had a great Four Seasons Hotel there which would provide us with maritime transportation to and from Basseterre, the Kittitian capital.
- When we got to Nevis, and made the first call; bad news. Our prominent lawyer who was the target had been called away off-island on some big criminal defence case. Not to be deterred. I immediately pulled out our list of available local attorneys, and we proceeded to call most of them up. By the end of the day, we had made firm appointments with a number of them.
- Landing in Basseterre the next morning, we hired a driver with a van, which allowed us to transport the cast, crew, producer and support staff, and started keeping those appointments. The second cameraman worked the sound and video recording equipment remotely, and monitored the meetings on a small screen. We had buy cash available, should an opportunity arise to make a deposit under the right circumstances.
- Our cover story was that he was a prominent American businessman contemplating a divorce, so that he could marry the "girlfriend" who accompanied him. They wanted to transfer a large amount of his wealth, in cash, to an offshore account, lest it be seized, or awarded to the wife during the upcoming contested divorce proceedings. The story was crafted to appear to be so transparent that any lawyer worth his salt would easily see that it was a fiction, poorly covering up the proceeds of some crime needing to be moved offshore.
- We got a few who declined, but by the end of the day, we netted three lawyers and a sitting part-time magistrate, all of whom offered to assist in the placement of what was obviously illicit cash into their banking system. The cameraman shot location film in the capital, to supplement our dynamite undercover footage. I also literally stumbled into the country's financial intelligence unit, un-staffed and much smaller than you would think a government agency should be. Functional it was not. AML window dressing?
- The next day, back on Nevis, to assure ourselves that it was not a fluke, our cast met with, and obtained, promises of assistance from Nevesian lawyers.
Next week; more undercover work comes my way.
The facts and opinions stated in this article are those of the author and not those of World-Check. World-Check does not warrant the accuracy of any facts and opinions stated in this article, does not endorse them, and accepts no responsibility for them.
Read more in this exciting series
4 October 2008
28 September 2008
20 September 2008
15 September 2008
15 June 2008
8 June 2008
1 June 2008
26 May 2008
19 May 2008
12 May 2008
4 May 2008
27 April 2008
20 April 2008
13 April 2008
31 March 2008
18 March 2008
4 March 2008
25 February 2008
16 February 2008
10 February 2008
3 February 2008
27 January 2008
20 January 2008
14 January 2008
6 January 2008
16 December 2007
9 December 2007
1 December 2007
25 November 2007
18 November 2007
11 November 2007
3 November 2007
27 October 2007
21 October 2007
14 October 2007
7 October 2007
1 October 2007
23 September 2007
16 September 2007
3 June 2007
27 May 2007
21 May 2007
6 May 2007
30 April 2007
22 April 2007
15 April 2007
8 April 2007
2 April 2007
24 March 2007
19 March 2007
12 March 2007
5 March 2007
25 February 2007
19 February 2007
12 February 2007
4 February 2007
28 January 2007
22 January 2007
15 January 2007
7 January 2007
2 January 2007
16 December 2006
10 December 2006
3 December 2006
27 November 2006
19 November 2006
11 November 2006
5 November 2006
29 October 2006
22 October 2006
16 October 2006
9 October 2006
2 October 2006
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