CONFESSIONS OF A
MONEY LAUNDERER by Kenneth Rijock
Financial Crime Consultant, for World-Check
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 85
26 January 2009

Whilst serving as a compliance officer, whether it is ordinary due diligence or the enhanced variety, I often used investigative tricks to help to verify the client's personal information. Remember, never box yourself into a corner, with perennially fixed procedures, and nothing more, because innovative money launderers will test your compliance system, learn from your information requests and your responses, and adapt the next time, to pass your compliance, and gain customer entry into the bank. Remember my golden rule: money launderers who are denied accounts by approaching the bank through the front door will often use the back door, or even the trap door. This means disguising an associate, and dressing up his or her personal information, specifically to pass compliance scrutiny. They learn from their mistakes, and are highly motivated to try again at the same exact financial institution where they were formerly denied access. Call it ego, or perhaps due to pressure from their employers/clients, but good money launderers will repeatedly attempt to place a confederate in a specific bank or NBFI that they want to use for funds transfers, or for laundering of illicit cash.

These are a few of the tricks I used, and which worked consistently for me:

  • The use of image search engines: whilst nearly everyone (80%, reportedly) uses Google or some other major search engine to look for new clients in Customer Identification Programmes (CIP), I suggest that you use the images,pictures or photos segments of these search engines to locate photographs of your subjects. Remember, criminals often do not realise that photographs taken at social or charitable events often appear in newspapers with Internet editions. Conversely, photographs can often document and verify employment, involvement in the community, membership in fraternal and professional associations, all indicia of legitimacy. I used image searches to find new clients at their listed workplace, at industry conferences and seminars, and in settings that verify personal information supplied by the client prior to account opening.

  • Public and Real Estate records: whether you are looking for tax records, which list the record title holders of real property, or the actual warranty deeds and mortgages, real estate documents or websites are good sources of verification of not only addresses, but of the ownership of property. Whilst you are there searching, a quick check for judgments, liens and any other adverse information, all of which must generally be recorded in the Public Records database, will often expose fraudsters, con men, and financial criminals who are not what they have represented themselves to be. Perhaps the highest risk that a potential client can display, other than crime, is a track record of litigation against banks where he formerly transacted business. Most compliance officers, even though they are risk-oriented, rarely check civil court dockets for such lawsuits. Public records libraries/databases will usually show (recorded) judgments obtained by the customer against banks and non-bank financial institutions.
  • Telephone number reverse look-up websites: Always access reliable telephone number sites, where the number will give you name/address results. This verifies important client-supplied information. Even though mobile numbers are generally excluded from these databases, other sites will tell you whether a number is indeed a mobile number, by the telephone exchange appearing therein. Some financial criminal will try to sip in bogus addresses, and think that the (usually) untraceable mobile number covers their tracks. learn to recognise mobile exchanges in your area. Also, learn those area codes and ZIP (Postal) codes, as errors there may be intentional, or a mistake which will lead you to the customer's real address out of town.
  • Occupational and professional license websites: Is the client a license holder at the local, state, province or national level? Accessing the information can even reveal any disciplinary history, whether the client is a total fraud, and show you the unblemished record of a good potential client seeking to open accounts with you.
  • Local criminal history databases: checking the prospective client in local criminal court databases can open your eyes to multiple white-collar arrests where there never were convictions, and even crimes of violence where adjudication of formal guilt were withheld. Local records can reveal important details about client conduct that could change your mind about the risks of accepting him or her as a customer.

I trust that these tips were helpful; more to follow.

Next week:
We discuss some of the alternative methods of information retrieval I used while in compliance.

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

Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 96
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 95
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 94
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 93
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 92
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 91
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part Ninety
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 89
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 88
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 87
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 86
New chapter out Tonight
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 85
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 84
Confession of a Money Launderer - Part 83
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 82
Confessions is on holiday until 5 January, but read earlier chapters here
Confession of a Money Launderer - Part 81
Confession of a Money Launderer - Part 80
Confession of a Money Launderer - Part 79
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 78
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 77
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 76
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 75
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 74
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 73
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 72
Confessions of a Money launderer - Part 71
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 70
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 69
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 68
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 67
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 66
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 65
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 64
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 63
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 62
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 61
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 60
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 59
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 58
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 57
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 56
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 55
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 54
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 53
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 52
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 51
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 50
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 49
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 48
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 47
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 46
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 45
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 44
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 43
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 42
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 41
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 40
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 39
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 38
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 37
Confessions of a Money launderer - Part 36
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 35
Confessions of a Money launderer - Part 34
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 33
Confessions of a Money launderer - Part 32
Confessions of a Money launderer - Part 31
Confessions of a Money launderer - Part 30
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 29
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 28
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 27
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 26
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 25
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 24
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 23
Confessions of a Money Launderer - part 22
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 21
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 20
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 19
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 18
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 17
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 16
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 15
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 14
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 13
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 12
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 11
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 10
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 9
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 8
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 7
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 6
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 5
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 4
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 3
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 2
Confessions of a Money Launderer - Part 1
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