Ten ways to spot a money launderer

Launderers are endlessly inventive – they need to be. Chris Hamblin highlights ten of their ploys; some you will know, but all?

1. Military manoeuvres

Anyone who remembers the Riggs case might recall General Pinochet’s use of military personnel in his laundry operations. Colonels and majors – never the uppermost ranks – set up accounts for him in their names. This is an easy ‘red flag’ to spot; the involvement of military men from a military dictatorship whose rank merits an annual salary of US$20,000 shifting large sums about in a private bank. Nigeria’s General Abacha’s annual salary was a mere US$25,000 in 1998. Mubarak’s salary last year was a tiny £E12,000 (UK£1,200), so all Egyptian officers’ salaries ought to be inferior to that amount. This also goes for officers from nations that have a military regime in their recent past.