AML/CFT: India to conduct yet another study on money laundering
It's a spectacularly good delaying tactic: talk, talk, talk. India is simply hopeless when it comes to any effective means to combat money laundering. But it talks a lot, it conducts studies and it claims to know why money laundering happens and how big the issue is. and now there is to be yet another study. Read on to see how we can help them save time and money and start to actually address the problems.
It's simple: criminals launder money and other assets that have been derived from crime. They do it so as to obfuscate the audit trail and to make it more difficult to connect those who benefit from crime from the commission of the crime.
That's why it happens. There is no other reason and there is no reason to keep trying to redefine it.
How big is the problem? Who knows? Answer - no one knows. The IMF invented some figures a few years ago but they were not based on any sensible or valid criteria. If anyone knows - or can make a decent stab at it - it's John Walker. He's a former rocket scientist. Pretty much any government or supranational body who tries to work out how much laundered money is floating around asks John. He says that no matter how complex the statistical models, there are more unknowns than knowns. He's right.
Why do we care? We don't. And nor should the Indians. It doesn't matter whether the precise amount can be quantified. It doesn't matter what proportion of national economies is in some way dirty money. If in principle governments are against it (as they should be) then they should be against it regardless of the size of the problem.
So, India, here's an idea. Scrap yet more research. Train investigators. Arrest tax evaders and corrupt officials - and corrupt people in industry. Charge them. Convict the guilty and jail them. Confiscate any assets that in whole or in part represent the proceeds of crime.
And stop wasting time.
Just get on with it.
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