Anti-Money Laundering and Combating Terrorism Financing

From this brief video, students will learn.

• Money laundering is about the "Disguise and Control" of funds.

• How money laundering principles emerged

• Relationship between Predicate offences and money laundering

• Mechanisms for laundering money

In this module, students will learn the following.

• Predicate offences or crimes?

• The connection between these crimes and money laundering.

• Understand why a crime must occur first and how a criminal decides to conceal the proceeds of the crime.

FATF advises that countries may decide, under their domestic law, how they will define these offences and the nature of any particular elements of those offences that make them serious.

In this module, students will understand the money laundering process through simplified pictures, narrations, and real-life examples for quick understanding. 

• Understand how criminals attempt to transform illicit money from its primary form or appearance to appear legitimate.

• Why do criminals need to launder funds?

• Stages money laundering and what happens at each stage

• Where do money launderers go to launder funds

• What are preferred businesses targeted by money launders?

• How laundered money goes around in a "Cyclic" nature.

• Why is money laundering profit-oriented? Remember the wealthy businessmen in our first module?

What is State Capture?

Do you know criminals gain an undue advantage when massive inflows from them find their way into society through investments? They gain economic power, significant influence in decision-making in government and control of the economy. This leads to a systemic political and economic control known as state capture.

• The video and article will lead us to a discussion on state capture at the end of this module.

As a result of this short video and previous resources, students will learn and be able to do the following:

• Discover how Al Capone, the famous American gangster and godfather, ran his multi-million dollar empire during the 1930s. What's the difference between then and now?

• Count the number of predicate offenses committed by Al Capone and explain how he laundered his illicit money through financial institutions and businesses.

• Was he a participant in state capture? Is there any evidence of state capture in his actions? 

• Remember the term "disguise" from the beginning of the course? Do you see this happening in this case study?

• Your observations about Al Capone's lifestyle should be recorded until the next lesson on state capture. It would be great to hear your thoughts.

  • The following lesson will be about state capture. We will look at examples from the past, such as Al Capone's and some of his associates' lifestyles, as well as some modern examples from the 2010 era.

Money laundering and state capture are frequently confused; however, in this lesson, students will learn the following:

• By definition, we will understand what State Capture and Money Laundering are.

• What is the relationship between money laundering and state capture?

• Organized crime syndicate participation and state capture

• What are tax havens, exactly?

• Is it illegal or legal to operate a tax haven?

• Case studies of how criminal organizations use laundered funds to influence government officials in various countries, among other things.

In this module, students will learn the following.

• What terrorism is, why and how it is financed.

• What are the motivating factors for terrorism?

• Know the role money plays in terrorism

• Terrorism financing red flags

• Bonus resource on "Foreign Terrorist Fighters."

  
  

Students will learn

• The definition of Terrorism and Terrorism Financing

• What Terrorism seeks to achieve

• How the financing is sourced. 

In this module, students will learn the following.

• The need to understand Terrorism Financing Operations

• The rising global awareness and impact of terrorism

• How disrupting the financing of terrorism is crucial

• The importance of finance

Here, students will understand what motivates terrorists and what drives their desire. Why the use of force? Other motives are through these factors

• Political

• Religious

• Social

• Environmental - A type of uncommon terrorism. Students will find an article (abstract) that examines environmental terrorism(eco-terrorism) in terms of its nature, its history, the philosophical justifications of its perpetrators, and some of the tactics used by "eco-terrorists

• Money is the lifeline of Terrorism. Terrorism finance is covert, but these same finances could be traced to tax havens or trade-based organisations.

• Learn also how money is used for media campaigns, training and the cost of terror attacks. 

• Learn the different sources of terrorism finance

• How Terrorists use predicate offences to generate funds

• Types of sponsors or donors of terrorism financing

Funds generated for acts of terrorism are linear in pattern, unlike Money Laundering.

Terrorists, however, move their funds through multiple legitimate and Illegitimate means.  Learn all these legitimate and illegal channels

For an additional global perspective on the fight against terrorist financing, watch the video at the link below to learn about other efforts to combat money laundering and terrorist financing through financial intelligence units, the Egmont Group, the use of suspicious transaction reports (STRs), and other tools.

Explain or outline what you have learnt about KYC 

According to Deepak Amirtha Raj, the Know Your Customer procedure is a crucial component to evaluating and monitoring customer risk. “KYC” refers to the steps taken by financial institutions to:

1. Discover the customer's identity

2. Understand the activities of the customer (important to evaluate the source of funds)

3. Perform a risk-based approach for monitoring the customer’s activities

Learn other steps needed by compliance officers to guide you in designing your AML policy. This is a must-read.

A thorough understanding of what is expected when you need direction on how to go about conducting Customer Due Diligence is critical. Read a one (1) page of steps from the FATF Recommendations and Basel Committee on Banking Supervision -" Customer due diligence for banks." 

BONUS MATERIAL 
Wolfberg's AML Principle on Politically Exposed Persons - (PEPs)

In this article, you will learn the following

1. How to define PEPs, PEPs families and associates,

2. How PEP assets should be recognised and treated.

3. How has a PEP to be involved in a specific business relationship be applied to specific PEP rules?

4. And so on