wmlro.com: publisher at centre of money laundering scheme.
Proving, again, that money laundering is about opportunity not any specific product or service, the case of 43 year old Andranik Petrosian is no surprise to the alert.
The Anti Money Laundering Network, which owns Vortex Centrum Limited, the publisher of BankingInsuranceSecurity and World Money Laundering Report / wmlro.com, has often been criticised for labouring the point that money launderers do not care what product or service is provided: anything that has value can be a vehicle for money laundering. One of the examples that has, over a decade and a half, been the most poo-pood is that of newspaper or magazine advertising.
The Petrosian case demands that the sceptics sit up and take notice.
Petrosian was this week sentenced to eight years in jail. He set up a scheme where he published magazines for the healthcare industry to advertise in, and sold advertisements at massively inflated prices. He also invoiced for design and other services that were never provided.
Petrosian had large amounts of cash on hand which he generated from an illegal money transfer business.
He laundered that cash by giving - literally - cash-back deals to hospital administrators - amounting to about 90% of the invoiced figures.
The inflated and false invoice amounts were entered into the books of the hospitals, and therefore formed a false claim for tax relief.
The cash was, in part, used by hospital administrators to pay bribes to clinics to refer patients for unnecessary tests - which were fraudulently billed to Medicare.
A spokesman for The Anti Money Laundering Network said "We told you so. Every example we have used over a decade and a half has been thought through to aid financial services businesses more fully understand their customers and the risks they pose. The use of newspaper advertising is just one of many."
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