Threat of Information Technology to Law Enforcement Essay

Free Articles

Information engineering can be defined as “Any equipment or interrelated system or subsystem of equipment that is used in the automatic acquisition. storage. use. direction. motion. control. show. exchanging. interchange. transmittal. or response of informations or information. The term information engineering includes computing machines. accessory equipment. package. microcode and similar processs. services ( including support services ) . and related resources” . ( Section 508 Definitions )

In present yearss. the usage of information engineering has become a life blood for every organisation. In this respect. the cyberspace has greatly consequence on the universe of concern minutess. and the fast monetary value diminutions of telecommunications bandwidth and calculating power are holding a dramatic impact on the fiscal universe. All Bankss and fiscal establishments have connected their web by utilizing IT and therefore made it possible that user can retreat and direct payment from one topographic point to another in no clip. It becomes really easy to do an on-line debit or recognition card payment. Electronic commercialism has been quickly increasing non merely in B2B concern to concern minutess but besides in B2C concern to consumer minutess.

We Will Write a Custom Essay Specifically
For You For Only $13.90/page!


order now

Simultaneously. the fast enlargement of electronic-commerce has brought about of import alterations in the district of colony. which is necessarily incidental to minutess. Paper-based payment by cheque. which is a usually conventional method of colony. has been used in fewer instances due to a changing connexion between gross revenues minutess and colony with the development of IT and the enlargement of Internet-based fiscal minutess. However. some new thoughts have emerged in footings of legal fundamental laws. legal theories. legal constructs. and refering conventional colony. Use of IT unable the development of processs fiscal markets. and instruments that economic expert in the yesteryear could merely speculate about. Fiscal minutess can be settled in existent clip although the undertaking parties may be 100s of stat mis apart.

As engineering has progressed. Electronic-money is being introduced as the newest method of interchanging value. Obviously. the electronic exchange of money is by no agencies a new innovation. Fiscal establishments and Banks have been utilizing computing machines to cover with one another for rather some clip. Entirely in the United States. in footings of the volume of dollars exchanged. the computer-based Fed-wire and Clearing House Inter-bank Payments System ( or CHIPS ) together history for 90 per centum of all minutess. Besides. 90 per centum of single minutess are still made by cheque and hard currency. With the immense promotion in information engineering several payments and aggregations methods have been developed and used successfully.

“The rise of the Internet and the velocity of fiscal minutess facilitated by computing machines have expanded money washing chances and activities in the latter half of the 1990s. There are increasing Numberss of Webs sites that solicit money for transportation offshore. the rise of cyberspace gaming and of practical banking have made it possible to wash money without any substructure to run or modulate international banking operations. Alternatively. the rise of information engineering and the growing of uncrackable encoding have provided the possibility of washing money with greater installation and with about perfect namelessness. All that is needed is a computer” . ( Shelley. n. p. )

The rise of the new IT has helped an unbelievable communications revolution. besides it has led to the growing of money laundering in some of the most distant countries in the universe. Some of import locations include Nauru. Vanuatu and the Marshall Islands through whose Bankss 1000000s have been laundered in the last twosome of decennaries. “Facilitating the rise of practical banking in offshore locations has been the willingness of major Bankss to have financess that have been routed through these venues. While well-written package could test these minutess and forestall the soaking up of these financess into mainstream banking centres. this has non occurred” . ( Shelley. n. p. )

What is Money Laundering?

“Electronic Money Washing covers the ABCs of money laundering and its connexion to drug trafficking. terrorist act and the planetary belowground economic system. It traces the relevant statutory history from the Bank Secrecy Act of 1970 onward” . ( Farber. n. p. )

How Money is Laundered

Typically. by traveling it from one province to another electronically or physically and befoging its beginning through complicated fiscal minutess. Fiscal Action Task Force ( FATF ) . calculates of the sum of money laundered annually worldwide from the illicit drug trade entirely scope between $ US 300 billion and $ US 500 billion.

Normally money laundering has three phases: arrangement. where illicit hard currency is converted into pecuniary instruments or deposited into fiscal system histories ; layering. where the financess are moved to other fiscal Institutions ; and integrating. where these financess are used to get assets or fund farther activities. The recognition card industry includes:

( 1 ) “Credit card associations ( associations ) . such as VISA and MasterCard. which license their member Bankss to publish bankcards. or authorize merchandisers to accept those cards. or both ;

( 2 ) Publishing Bankss. which solicit possible clients and publish the recognition cards ; geting Bankss. which procedure minutess for merchandisers that accept recognition cards ; and

( 3 ) third-party processors. which contract with issue or geting Bankss to supply dealing processing and other recognition card–related services for the banks” . ( Money Laundering Extent of Money Laundering through Credit Cards is Unknown. pg. 1. 2 )

Harmonizing to Assistant Director James E. Finch. of the FBI’s Cyber Division “The coming of new electronic currency systems increases the hazard that felons. and perchance terrorists. will work these systems to wash money and reassign financess globally to avoid jurisprudence enforcement examination and circumvent banking ordinances and describing. ” ( Digital Currency Business E-Gold )

Representatives of regulative organic structures. jurisprudence enforcement bureaus and gambling and recognition card industries expressed assorted positions refering the exposure of Internet chancing to money laundering. Harmonizing to jurisprudence enforcement functionaries chancing on cyberspace could be used as a primary motivation for washing condemnable returns at the comparatively vague layering phase of money laundering.

Furthermore. functionaries admitted the deficiency of adjudicated instances affecting money laundering via cyberspace chancing sites but referred what they believe to be prima factors. including the lack of any industry ordinances or inadvertence. Regulatory gambling and banking functionaries did non see cyberspace gaming as being particularly susceptible to money laundering.

Particularly. when recognition cards. which make a dealing record and are capable to relatively low dealing bounds. are employed for payment. Similarly. functionaries of bet oning industry and recognition card did non believe Internet chancing posed any curious hazards in footings of money laundering. Harmonizing to bet oning industry functionaries Internet gaming was any more or less vulnerable to money laundering than other types of E-commerce. in their position. the fiscal industry. which is primary responsible for the payments system. is suited to supervising for dubious activity in the country than the gambling industry itself.

Money Washing Methods

Electronic Fundss Transfer

Besides known as wire transportation or telegraphic transportation. this method of money laundering consists of directing financess electronically from one state to another in order to avoid the demand to physically transport the currency.

Postal Money Orders

The purchase of money orders for hard currency provides chances to money launderers to direct these fiscal instruments out of the province for sedimentation into abroad or seaward history.

Recognition Card games

Overpaying recognition cards and maintaining a high balance in recognition cards gives money launderers right of entry to these financess to buy high value points or to alter the recognition balance into cheques.

Casinos

In this method hard currency may be taken to a casino to purchase french friess which can so be redeemed for a casino cheque.

Polishing

In this method the money launderer exchange little denomination measures for larger 1s and can be carried out by a individual who change the measures at a figure of different Bankss in order non to raise intuition.

Structuring Smurfing

Smurfing is possibly the most used money washing method. In this method many peoples who deposit hard currency into bank histories or purchase bank bill of exchanges in sums under $ 10. 000 value to avoid the coverage threshold.

Currency ExchangesandMoney Servicess

Currency exchanges and Money services render a service that enables peoples to interchange abroad currency that can so be transported out of the metropolis or state. Money can besides be wired to histories in other provinces. Other services provided by these concerns include the traveler’s cheques. sale of money orders. and tellers checks.

Asset Purchases with Bulk Cash

In method of money washing a money launderer may but high value points like autos. boats or other luxury points like electronics and jewellery. Money launderers will utilize these points but will distance themselves by holding them registered or bought in a company’s name.

Legitimate Business

Persons or condemnable groups may put or take over in concerns that normally handle a high hard currency dealing volume in order to blend the illicit moves with those of the legitimate concern. Criminals may besides purchase concerns that receive hard currency payments. including bars ; currency exchange shops eating houses. dark nines. and peddling machine corporations. Money launderer will so infix condemnable financess as false income mixed with gross that would non otherwise be equal to keep a legitimate concern.

Value Tampering

“Money launderers may look for belongings proprietors who agree to sell their belongings. on paper. at a monetary value below its existent value and so accept the difference of the purchase monetary value “under the table” . In this manner. the launderer can. for illustration. buy a $ 2 million dollar belongings for $ 1 million. while in secret go throughing the balance to the marketer. After keeping the belongings for a period of clip. the launderer so sells it for its true value of $ 2 million” . ( Money Laundering – A Preventive Guide )

Loan Back

In this money washing method a condemnable furnishes an associate with a amount of illicit money and the associate makes the paperwork for mortgage or a loan back to the felon for the same sum. including all of the indispensable certification. This makes a false feeling that the criminal’s financess are legitimate about our national security” . ( Electronic Money Laundering – An Environmental Scan )

Effectss of Money Washing

“Money laundering has far-reaching effects:

  • It makes offense wage ; it allows drug sellers. runners and other felons to spread out their operations. This drives up the cost of jurisprudence enforcement and wellness attention ( e. g. . intervention of drug dependences ) .
  • It has the possible to sabotage the fiscal community because of the sheer magnitude of the amounts involved. The potency for corruptness additions with the huge sums of illicitly obtained money in circulation.
  • Washing diminishes authorities revenue enhancement gross and hence indirectly harms honest taxpayers and reduces legitimate occupation chances.
  • Perceived easiness of entry to our state attracts an unwanted component across our boundary lines. degrading our quality of life and raising concerns

“The key to command of international offense may depend on cutting off the flow of illegal net incomes to condemnable organisations. It is estimated that $ 300 billion of soiled money may be laundered each twelvemonth. its beginning and ownership obscured as it passes through fiscal establishments and across national boundaries in an attempt to conceal and protect it from jurisprudence enforcement governments. Condemnable organisations. like legitimate concerns. bask a Swift and about hazard free conduit for traveling money between states wire transportation systems. Illicit wire transportations are easy hidden among the 700. 000 largely legitimate wire transportations that occur daily in the United States. traveling good over $ 2 trillion” . ( Information Technologies for the Control of Money Laundering )

The OTA was asked by the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs to measure the proposed usage of techniques derived from AI research to supervise wire transportation traffic and recognize dubious transportations. Furthermore. to the full automated computing machine showing of wire transportations was found to be about impossible for some proficient grounds.

However. OTA analysts developed and assessed a figure of alternate constellations of engineering that. combined with obvious legal and institutional inventions. could greatly better the capableness of jurisprudence enforcement bureaus to detect and prosecute money launders seeking to work United States. In add-on. wire transportation systems and fiscal establishments all of these suggested constellations entail some societal costs and economic. including some possible decline of fiscal privateness. schemes are proposed for minimising these costs while bettering the possible utility of IT in control of money laundering.

Future of Money Washing

Cyber payments

“The term cyber payments is merely one of many used to depict systems which facilitate the transportation of fiscal value ( i. e. . digital currency. e-money ) . In fact. these developments may change the agencies by which all types of fiscal minutess are conducted and fiscal payment systems are operated. Such minutess may happen via the Internet or through the usage of smart cards which unlike debit or recognition cards really contain a micro chip. which shops value on the card. Some Cyber payments systems use both.

E-Cash

There are several systems of e-money. There are stored value cards such as MONDEX which is a rechargeable card ( charged by seting it in a particular slot in an ATM ) . and is both an entree device and a ego contained shop of value. Further to this is Internet-based payment systems that use the Internet’s telecommunications capableness to ease fiscal minutess with other users. The personal computing machine which serves as the user’s interface with the Internet payment system can besides hive away value and is hence. besides an entree device and ego contained shop of value.

Morris-Cotterill ( How Not To Be a Money Launderer. 1996 ) describes the Internet as being one of the greatest chances for washing because of the entire deficiency of traceable minutess. the usage of encoding package will further do minutess wholly secure.

With the Internet. being connected to anywhere in the universe is no job and this will let cross boundary line motions of capital to take topographic point. It remains to be seen whether money laundering directors take advantage of these new engineerings to besiege any statute law on other traditional laundering techniques ( smurfing. wire transportations. bank bill of exchanges for illustration ) . It is nevertheless. a concern to the authorities” . ( International Money Washing Information Bureau )

Decision

Money laundering may hold flooring societal effects. Laundered financess furnish fiscal support for weaponries traders. drug sellers and other felons to run and spread out their operations. Probes unwrap that felons manipulate fiscal systems in Canada and other states to back up a wide scope of illicit activities. For case. drug trafficking entirely generates 1000000s of dollars in illicit financess for condemnable organisations yearly. Businesss backed by the returns from offense green goods unjust competition and can insolvent legitimate competition in the market.

Plants Cited

Digital Currency Business E-Gold Indicted for Money Laundering and Illegal Money

hypertext transfer protocol: //www. usdoj. gov/opa/pr/2007/April/07_crm_301. hypertext markup language Accessed. June 14. 2007

Electronic Money Laundering – An Environmental Scan

hypertext transfer protocol: //ww2. ps-sp. gigahertz. ca/publications/crim_jus/money_laundering_e. asp

Accessed. June 14. 2007

Farber Dave. ( 08 Dec 1995 ) . Information science: Information Technology for Control of Money Washing

Information Technologies for the Control of Money Washing

hypertext transfer protocol: //stinet. dtic. mil/oai/oai? & A ; verb=getRecord & A ; metadataPrefix=html & A ; identifier=ADA336940

Accessed. June 14. 2007

International Money Washing Information Bureau

hypertext transfer protocol: //www. imlib. org/page13_future. hypertext markup language Accessed. June 14. 2007

Money Washing – A Preventive Guide

hypertext transfer protocol: //www. rcmp-grc. gigahertz. ca/poc/launder_e. htm Accessed. June 14. 2007

Money Washing Extent of Money Laundering through Credit Cards is Unknown ( July. 2002 ) Report to the Chairman. Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Committee on Governmental Affairs. U. S. Senate. ( page 1. 2 )

Section 508 Definitions

hypertext transfer protocol: //www. grc. National Aeronautics and Space Administration. gov/WWW/Purchase/Section_508_def. htm Accessed. June 14. 2007

Shelley Louise ( n. d. ) . Money Laundering. Organized Crime and Corruptness

Post a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

x

Hi!
I'm Katy

Would you like to get such a paper? How about receiving a customized one?

Check it out