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The word money laundering is literally translated from the English word "money coming", which originally meant to clean dirty money. However, the meaning of money laundering is not what it used to be, and there are various expressions. Some scholars in our country believe that money laundering refers to the behavior that criminals transfer, exchange, buy financial instruments or directly invest illegally obtained funds through banks or other financial institutions in order to compress and conceal their illegal sources and nature and legalize illegal assets.
"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 for 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 up illegality" and constantly expand their criminal power.
The object of money laundering is black money, including: drug trafficking, smuggling, arms trafficking, fraud, theft, robbery, corruption, tax evasion and other criminal gains.
Money laundering is usually divided into three steps: (1) deposit, that is, deposit illegally obtained cash in the bank; (2) Through a series of complicated transactions, such as bank transfer, cash and securities transactions, transnational fund transfer, etc. Cover up the real source of funds and legalize it; (3) Return funds to criminals in a legal form.
In addition, there are many other ways of money laundering, such as buying real estate, jewelry, antiques and so on. And then convert them into cash or other financial assets.
origin
In the 1920s, a mafia financial expert in Chicago bought a coin-operated washing machine and opened a laundry. Every night when he calculates the laundry income of the day, he will add other illegally obtained money and then declare and pay taxes to the tax authorities. In this way, after deducting the tax payable, the remaining illegal income becomes his legal income. This is the origin of the word "money laundering".
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 for 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 up illegality" and constantly expand their criminal power.
The object of money laundering is black money, including the income generated by crimes such as drug trafficking, smuggling, arms trafficking, fraud, theft, robbery, corruption and tax evasion. Money laundering is usually divided into three steps: (1) deposit, that is, deposit illegally obtained cash in the bank; (2) Through a series of complicated transactions, such as bank transfer, cash and securities transactions, transnational fund transfer, etc. Cover up the real source of funds and legalize it; (3) Return funds to criminals in a legal form. In addition, there are many other ways of money laundering, such as buying real estate, jewelry, antiques and so on. And then convert them into cash or other financial assets.
In recent years, a new money laundering activity, namely corruption, has emerged. On a global scale, money laundering activities of public officials are becoming more and more frequent. Through various channels, they put the black money of corruption and bribery on the cloak of legitimate income. After that, you can not only openly squander and enjoy these illegal gains, but also use them for investment and appreciation, which has exceeded the traditional money laundering. This new phenomenon of money laundering is becoming more and more serious in China.
There are several ways of money laundering with "China characteristics": first, making money first and then laundering money, that is, a large number of public officials resign to run a company or stock market in Shanghai after taking bribes, and explain his abnormal wealth with a new identity; The second is to make money while laundering money, that is, to engage in "one family, two systems" and use their own power to make money on the stage, and relatives use their "going to sea" status to cover up the source of black money; Third, to make money by money laundering, that is, government officials or CEOs of state-owned enterprises set up private enterprises and agency enterprises (enterprises are ostensibly owned by others, but their power is in their own hands), which can not only transfer black money to the accounts of these enterprises through economic exchanges, but also make another sum through normal tax payment operations.
The other 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 funds abroad and laundering money. 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 began to lay a foundation abroad and get their children and funds out. Nowadays, there is a kind of "study abroad aristocrat" among the international students in China. Most of them are not the children of "big money" in China, but when they first arrived overseas, they had a lot of money in their bank deposit accounts. When the middle class in developed countries still want to buy houses by stages, these international students have already bought houses in local rich areas, paying hundreds of thousands or even millions at a time.
Transfer illegal income. Such as funds obtained from corruption, bribery and rent-seeking, embezzled state-owned assets, and huge wealth obtained from smuggling, bootlegging, fraud and tax evasion, so as to turn public into private. As China is in the period of system transition, the incentive, restraint and internal supervision mechanisms of state-owned and collective enterprises are not perfect, domestic parent companies transfer their assets and profits to overseas subsidiaries or overseas investors in various ways, so that a few people can gain greater control over overseas public assets, or directly turn public assets into private assets.
There are three main ways of money laundering: the first way is to sign contracts with overseas countries for remittance, and at this time, domestic and foreign countries usually cooperate with each other to make fake documents; The second is to remit money through underground banks; The third is to diversify investment. 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 money laundering through underground banks is very low. Take the Hong Kong dollar as an example. If the exchange rate of banks is 0.8, then the exchange rate of underground banks is basically only 1. 10. The second is that there are many overseas Chinese in Chaoshan area, and when black money goes abroad, it often returns in the form of gifts from relatives and friends. "
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 the smuggling case of Yuan Hua in Xiamen, Lai Changxing's income flowed abroad through underground banks. From 1996 to 1998, Yuan Hua's smuggling income of1200 million yuan was remitted to an underground bank in Guangzhou by Chief Financial Officer Zhuang Jianqun under the pseudonym of "Yellow River", and then the "Yellow River" informed Hong Kong partners to pay foreign exchange to the original Chinese institutions in Hong Kong. It is estimated that China launders up to 200 billion yuan through underground banks every year.
The gangster term of "money laundering" is "beating": when a domestic "customer" wants to convert a large amount of RMB cash or money orders into Hong Kong dollars or US dollars for withdrawal in Hong Kong, he will directly hand them over to an underground bank or deposit them 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 Hong Kong partner, who will pay foreign exchange from the Hong Kong bank account 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 defrauding import contracts and customs declarations. However, this technology has obviously fallen behind. Nowadays, underground banks in Chaoshan generally have their own companies, and they can make ends meet by repeatedly knocking business with overseas companies. A batch of watches have been transferred 27 times between Shantou and Hong Kong, and the watch of 10000 has become a watch of 270000.
Where there is demand, there is a market. A few years ago, Shantou underground bank "cooperated with tax cheaters" is an obvious example. Underground banks have developed rapidly in the crazy process of tax fraud. In the process of laundering money for tax fraudsters one after another, the salesmen of a bank even spread all over Chaoshan towns.
Huang, the first tax cheater sentenced to death in Shantou, personally described his "making money" process of defrauding export tax rebates: "I first set up Daxing Company to obtain import and export rights, and then set up eight suppliers to falsely issue VAT invoices. I also found a person named Xu to buy the customs declaration form, and then asked Chen Qincheng, a fellow villager living in Hong Kong, to remit it. Finally, I paid part of the tax to the tax authorities in advance and obtained a' special tax bill'. After that, I can get the export tax rebate. After getting the tax refund, I will buy cash through the underground bank and pay it to Chen Qincheng for the next' export collection' to start another cycle. " In this way, Huang defrauded the export tax rebate of 2 1 10,000 yuan within one year.
It is understood that there are more than 100 criminal gangs engaged in defrauding export tax rebates in Chaoyang and Puning. In June 2000 alone, 32.3 billion yuan of VAT invoices were falsely issued, and nearly 4.2 billion yuan was suspected of tax fraud. You can imagine how much the underground bank has helped.
According to the information of a major money laundering case uncovered by the Hong Kong Independent Commission Against Corruption, the money laundering syndicate tried to bribe a senior manager of its bank, Baosheng Bank, Tsim Sha Tsui Branch, to prevent the transfer amount in the bank from being regulated by Hong Kong laws, and asked him to handle all the money in the form of general transfer rather than 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 respectively.
After discovering that someone inside the bank was suspected of corruption, China Banking Group, which belongs to Baosheng Bank, took the initiative to report to ICAC. In the investigation, ICAC found that Lai Changxing, the principal offender of the smuggling case of "Yuan Hua", was one of its main customers. In addition, some Hong Kong businessmen who invest in the Mainland also use 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 every year in China, of which 70 billion RMB comes from smuggling income, more than 30 billion RMB comes from official corruption income, and the rest comes from legal income. To put it bluntly, foreign-funded enterprises transfer their legitimate 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 is reported that this kind of "error" in China's balance of payments statistics is as high as120 billion US dollars every year, which has accumulated for many years, and the amount exceeds100 billion. Some economists estimate that "mistakes and omissions" are only part of government statistics, and more capital outflows are not recorded, so this figure may be even more alarming.