Financial Crimes are the criminal activities carried out by a person or criminal organizations to provide economic benefits through unlawful methods according to the δικηγορος οικονομικο ποινικο δικαιο. It has become a critical issue in recent years worldwide, and it causes significant harm to the economy and society. Cash flow from financial crimes corresponds to a substantial proportion of global GDP. Thus, regulatory bodies continuously develop new ways to combat financial crimes. Additionally, with the development of technology, criminals develop new tactics. Nowadays most common financial crimes are terrorist financing, money laundering, corruption, and fraud.
Financial crime in detail
Financial crimes are crimes in which criminal organizations take advantage financially. In financial crimes, usually, one party provides an economic advantage, and the other party has to suffer a financial loss. These are frequently committed for the personal benefit of the criminal and involve the unlawful transfer of ownership of the property involved. They can occur in many different types, and they happen all over the globe. The most common crimes in terms of the financial sector are money laundering, terrorist financing, fraud, and tax evasion. These crimes are committed daily, and governments worldwide frequently prosecute financial criminals while searching for new ones. For example, Terrorist Organizations need financial backing to achieve their goals. Terrorist organizations raise these funds via criminal activity, self-financing and legitimate resources.
Money laundering
It is the process of turning earnings from crime into legal earnings. Cartels and gangs are the most frequent money launderers. Some advanced techniques may include financial institutions such as accountants, shell companies, and financial and consulting institutions. These criminal organizations use assets that make money laundering and increase the complexity to raise money laundering in illegal money transfers between countries and terrorism. As a result, regulators have obliged financial institutions to implement various controls to prevent financial crimes, referred to as “anti-money laundering obligations.”
Prevention against financial crimes
There are many national and global organizations to counter financial crimes. For example, The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) is a US and Treasury Department’s office that collects and analyzes financial transactions to counter national and international money laundering, terrorist financing, and other financial crimes. These organizations make regulations that companies have to obey. Regulators impose penalties on organizations that do not obey the regulations. Financial institutions must obey compliance regulations such as Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements.
With the rise of technology, methods of countering financial crimes are developing. With the developing RegTech sector in recent years, solutions to counter financial crimes have increased. AML solutions, developed with artificial intelligence and machine learning methods, can detect and prevent financial crimes. AML solutions are increasing yearly because manual control methods are dysfunctional and waste time.
Sanction Scanner provides solutions that support companies’ counter against financial crimes and compliance with AML regulations. AML Name Screening Software allows companies to control their customers in sanction, PEP, and adverse media data during customer onboarding and monitoring. Financial institutions may regulate the recipient and sender of money transfer transactions in sanction, PEP, and negative media data thanks to transaction screening software. All client transactions are automatically regulated in accordance with risk regulations and scenarios thanks to AML Transaction Monitoring Software, which also guarantees the detection of anomalous transactions.