How banks can detect money mules in the time of Covid-19

Different informal methods of laundering illicit funds have evolved over the years by criminal networks and organisations. Professor Nikos Passas, in his 2005 report to the National Institute of Justice, listed various informal value transfer methods that can be used by criminal groups to launder proceeds of crime. Among them are the manipulation of invoices; the use of trade diversion schemes; the use of a correspondent account utilised by the criminals’ bank overseas at a US institution (they can draw money and, thus, make payments in the US or elsewhere) and the use of credit/debit cards by multiple individuals. ¹