Money laundering refers to the process of transforming illegal gains into "legal property" through financial or other institutions, which has become a very key link in the survival and development of criminal groups. On the one hand, through money laundering, organized crime covers up the traces of its criminal activities and can "properly enjoy" the proceeds of crime; On the other hand, money laundering provides funds for criminal groups to intervene in legitimate enterprises, enabling them to "legally cover the illegal" and continuously expand their criminal power.
The object of money laundering is black money, including: income from drug trafficking, smuggling, arms trafficking, fraud, theft, robbery, corruption, tax evasion and other crimes. In addition, there are many other ways of money laundering, such as buying real estate, jewelry, antiques, etc., and then converting them into cash or other financial assets.
A new money laundering activity, namely corruption, has emerged. Money laundering by public officials is becoming more and more frequent all over the world. Through various channels, they put on the cloak of legitimate income the black money they embezzled and accepted bribes. After that, we can not only openly squander and enjoy these illegal gains, but also use them for investment and re-appreciation, and its development speed has exceeded the traditional money laundering. This new money laundering phenomenon is becoming more and more serious in China.
There are several ways to launder money with "China characteristics": first, make money first and then launder money, that is, after a large number of public officials embezzle and accept bribes, they resign to run a company or stock market in Shanghai, and use their new identities to explain his abnormal wealth; The second is to make money while laundering money, that is, to engage in "one family, two systems", and use their power to make money on the stage, while relatives use their "going to sea" status to cover up the source of black money; Third, making money with money laundering, that is, government officials or CEOs of state-owned enterprises set up private enterprises and agent enterprises (enterprises are ostensibly owned by others, but the power is controlled by themselves), which can not only transfer black money to the accounts of these enterprises through economic exchanges, but also earn another sum through normal tax payment operations.
Another category is transnational money laundering, that is, taking advantage of the increasingly close contact between domestic and foreign markets, trying to transfer black money out, or collecting illegal money abroad and laundering it. Although the international money laundering activities of domestic corrupt elements have not yet formed a scale, they have occupied an increasing proportion in international money laundering. Some leading cadres have begun to lay a foundation abroad and get their children and funds out. Nowadays, there is a kind of "studying abroad aristocrat" among the overseas students in China. Most of them are not the children of "big money" in China, but when they first arrived overseas, they had a large amount of money in their bank deposit accounts. When the middle class in developed countries still want to buy houses by installments, these international students have bought houses in local rich areas, and paid hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars in one lump sum.
Transfer illegal income. Such as funds obtained from corruption, bribery, rent-seeking, embezzled state-owned assets, and huge wealth seized from smuggling, bootlegging, fraud and tax evasion, so as to turn public into private. Because China is in the period of system transition, the incentive, restraint and internal monitoring mechanisms of state-owned and collective enterprises are not perfect, and domestic parent companies transfer assets and profits to overseas subsidiaries or foreign investors in various ways, so that a few people gain greater control over public assets abroad, or directly turn public assets into private ones.
There are three main ways to launder money: the first way is to sign a contract with overseas countries to remit money, and at this time, domestic and foreign countries usually have to cooperate with each other to make fake documents; The second is to remit money through underground banks; The third is to diversify investment into parts. At present, most of the black money smuggled and accumulated in Chaoshan area is laundered through underground banks. "There are two reasons. The first is that the cost of laundering money through underground banks is very low. Take Hong Kong dollars as an example. If the exchange rate of banks is 0.8, the exchange rate of underground banks is basically only 1. 10. The second is that there are many overseas Chinese in Chaoshan area, and black money often flows back in the form of gifts from relatives and friends when it goes abroad. "
In fact, it has become an open secret that underground money houses launder money for smuggling criminals, not only in Chaoshan area, but also in Fujian and Zhejiang areas. Relevant materials show that in Xiamen Yuanhua smuggling case, Lai Changxing's income flowed abroad through underground banks. From 1996 to 1998, RMB 120 billion of Yuanhua's smuggling income was sent by Zhuang Jianqun, the chief financial officer, to an underground bank in Guangzhou with a pseudonym of "Yellow River", and then the "Yellow River" informed Hong Kong partners to pay foreign exchange to Yuanhua's institutions in Hong Kong. It is estimated that the amount of black money laundered through underground banks in China is as high as 200 billion each year.
The gangster term of "money laundering" is called "dozen": when a domestic "customer" wants to exchange a large amount of RMB cash or money order for Hong Kong dollars or US dollars to be withdrawn in Hong Kong, he will directly hand over the RMB cash and money order to an underground bank or deposit it in its designated account, and the underground bank will calculate the amount of Hong Kong dollars or US dollars to be paid according to the black market price of foreign exchange on that day and notify its partner in Hong Kong, and the Hong Kong partner will pay foreign exchange from the bank account in Hong Kong to the account designated by the customer. or vice versa, Dallas to the auditorium
When the domestic income of RMB greatly exceeds the expenditure, underground banks will exchange foreign exchange for Hong Kong partners through "professional households". The foreign exchange sources of these "professional households" are mainly obtained by fraudulent import contracts and customs declarations. However, this technique has obviously fallen behind. They can completely balance their income and expenses by repeatedly knocking on business with overseas companies. A batch of watches has been transferred between Shantou and Hong Kong for 27 times, and 1 10,000 watches has become 270,000 watches.
Where there is demand, there is a market. A few years ago, Shantou underground money house "cooperated with tax fraudsters" is an obvious example. Underground money houses have developed rapidly in the crazy process of tax fraud. In the process of laundering money for tax fraudsters one after another, clerks of a money house even spread all over Chaoshan towns.
Huang Wenlong, the first tax cheater sentenced to death in Shantou, personally described his "making money" for defrauding export tax rebates: "I first set up Daxing Company to obtain import and export rights, and then set up eight supply enterprises to falsely issue VAT invoices. I also found a person named Xu Qiaoli to buy the customs declaration form, and then asked Chen Qincheng, a fellow countryman living in Hong Kong, to remit foreign exchange, and finally paid part of the tax to the tax authorities in advance to obtain a' special tax bill'. After that, I can get the export tax rebate. After obtaining the tax refund, the cash will be purchased through the underground bank and paid to Chen Qincheng for the next' export collection' to start another cycle. " It is in this way that Huang Wenlong defrauded the export tax rebate of more than 210 million yuan in one year.
It is understood that more than 100 criminal gangs in Chaoyang and Puning engaged in defrauding export tax rebates, only from 1999 to June 2000, falsely invoiced 32.3 billion yuan of value-added tax, and were suspected of defrauding taxes by nearly 4.2 billion yuan. It can be imagined how much help underground money houses helped.
According to the information that the Hong Kong Independent Commission Against Corruption cracked a major money laundering case, the money laundering group managed to bribe a senior manager of Tsim Sha Tsui Branch of Baosheng Bank, its account bank, in order to prevent the amount of money transferred in the bank from being regulated by Hong Kong laws, and asked him to handle all the money in the form of general transfer instead of remittance. With the help of the manager, these "black money" were transferred to different bank accounts, and then remitted to relevant bank accounts in Hong Kong and overseas.
Bank of China Group, which belongs to Baosheng Bank, reported to the ICAC on its own initiative after discovering that someone inside the bank was suspected of corruption. In the investigation, the ICAC found that Lai Changxing, the principal of the "Yuanhua" smuggling case, was one of its main customers. In addition, some Hong Kong businessmen who invested in the Mainland also used this criminal group to "launder money" and realize capital flight. It is reported that this group has been operating for at least five years, and its daily cash exchange with Guangdong and Fujian is as high as 50 million yuan.
But obviously, this is just the tip of the iceberg. It is estimated that at least 200 billion RMB is laundered through underground banks in China every year, of which 70 billion RMB is laundered from smuggling income, more than 30 billion RMB from official corruption income, and the rest is laundered from legal income. To put it bluntly, foreign-funded enterprises transfer their legal income overseas through underground banks to avoid state supervision and taxation.
According to the internationally accepted calculation method, the amount of capital flight is the difference between China's trade surplus plus net capital inflow and the increase of China's total foreign exchange reserves. It has been reported that this "error and omission" in China's balance of payments statistics has reached 120 billion US dollars every year, which has accumulated for many years and the amount has exceeded 100 billion. Some economists estimate that "errors and omissions" are only the part counted by the government, and more capital outflows are not recorded, so this figure may be even more alarming.