Anti Money Laundering Blog

A peculiar project has revealed that money in the USA is easy to launder.

How much does it take? Well, about a month. How much does it cost? Well, about USD 4 000.

To demonstrate how easy it is for tax evaders, money launderers or terrorists to hide behind secretive domestic companies, 2 retired IRS agents, Michael McDonald and Steven Smith, formed anonymously owned companies in New York, Florida and Panama and after that wired money among the companies’ bank accounts. As a result, it became obvious to anyone that it takes no painful and hard efforts to move money in and out without a trace using US companies.

Alert Global Media began this research project in the beginning of 2006 for a presentation at a money-laundering conference that opened on March 19, 2007 in Florida.

Michael McDonald and Steven Smith refused to name a firm that registered Greenlink Ventures in New York and Franklin Grant & Associates Management in Florida and advised to use Internet banks for corporate accounts. Throughout the process, Smith used his real name and obeyed laws. However, using the Nevada firm, he created the companies and got an IRS identification number without revealing his Social Security number. When asked to list an alternate company contact in case of an emergency, he provided the name Bange Mason.

Then, Smith and McDonald created Grupo Griffin Internacional in Panama and then opened an account there. The Panama bank required notarized copies of the 1st page of his passport and both sides of his driver’s license. Smith found surprising that it was more difficult to open an account in Panama than it was in the USA.

After the registration process was completed, the retired agents wired USD 9 000 from the Florida company to Grupo Griffin’s Panama bank and then wired the funds to the Internet bank account of the New York company. The agents said that the transactions were nearly impossible to trace.

McDonald made a conclusion that while the USA beats up on small island jurisdictions, it is not having adequate controls inside the country.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 22nd, 2007 at 9:03 am and is filed under Anti-Money Laundering. General Information. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.