Economic system vulnerabilities concerning the money laundering

Author:Nicolae FUIOREA

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Keywords:organized crime, money laundering, anomaly indexes, suspected transactions, abnormal behavior

Abstract:
During the last decades, at the global level, appeared a recognition if the fact that it is essential to fight against the organized crime, that the criminals should be stopped whenever this is possible, from their endeavor to legitimate the results of the fraudulent activities, by transferring the „dirty” funds in „clean” funds. \r\n\r\nThe ability to hide the results of the criminal activities using the financial system is vital for the success of the criminal activities. The use, for the purpose of money laundering, of the financial – banking systems leads to the undermining of the individual financial institutions and, on the end, of the whole economic system. At the same time, the higher integrity of the financial systems worldwide and the removal of the barrier imposed to the free movement of the capitals increased the easiness of laundering the money obtained from criminal activities and complicates the process of tracing the money. The latest tendencies pointed out that the individuals involved in money laundering direct more and more their efforts towards hiring some non-banking and non-financial intermediaries. This way, the fight against the money laundering is directed towards making more legal persons aware of this phenomenon, not only those from the banking system. \r\nThe long term success and stability of any institutions depends on attracting and keeping the funds illegitimately gained. \r\n\r\nin order to fight against the money laundering, fraud, illegal acts performed by the „white collars” category and the organized crime, besides the activities performed by the institutions involved in defending the law, there is a need of a common effort of the managers, auditors and employees in all the sectors of the economic life. \r\n\r\nThe costs of this kind of criminal activities appear both at the economic, and the social level. By appropriated internal controls and more strict requirements for the external auditors, as well as by the adoption of the code of ethics for employees, an exhaustive system of fighting against the financial criminal activities at the corporate level can be reached. \r\n\r\nIt is obvious that in this system the financial auditor can have a pro-active role. The importance and the potential of the financial auditors’ contribution in preventing and fighting the money laundering will de presented in more details in a subsequent number of this magazine.\r\n\r\n

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