Criminals launder money in legitimate firms

Crime bosses are increasingly using legitimate business people to launder their dirty money, according to the head of the Criminal Assets Bureau.

Det Chief Supt Eugene Corcoran said these people, who are typically struggling with financial debt of their own, allow their business and accounts to be used in return for money.

People, unconnected with criminality, are also being used to buy property on behalf of criminal figures.

He said organised crime continued to use a small minority of professionals, such as solicitors, accountants and tax advisers, to launder money, here and abroad.

In an interview with the Irish Examiner, the CAB boss said people caught up in this were “playing a dangerous game” and could come under pressure if and when they try and end the relationship.

Chief Corcoran said the need of criminals for new ways to launder money due to tighter regulations on money laundering was dovetailing with the vulnerability of business people.

“Increasingly there is a tendency to involve people who have no criminal records and on the face of it are legitimate business people,” he said.

He said the “most valuable thing to a criminal” is to have access to bank accounts of people unconnected to him. “They’ll approach people, partly through personal contacts or maybe they have a vulnerability — they may have debts themselves.”

Chief Corcoran said these not were typically medium or large established legitimate businesses, but small cash businesses. “The most useful person to a criminal is a sole trader or someone with a very small business, who’s got into difficulty, a debt, and who will offer his account maybe for a short period or a number of transactions, even one.”

He said CAB was seeing the trend particularly in the lucrative fuel laundering trade, where organised crime and dissident republicans were making tens of millions in profits annually.

“Fuel laundering is one area where a lot of people are being drawn in who wouldn’t historically be regarded as having any connections with criminals, yet find themselves doing exactly that, facilitating them, allowing their accounts and businesses to be used for the laundering of their funds.”

Between 1996 and 2011, CAB secured final asset confiscation orders worth €54m and tax payments of €137m. In addition social welfare savings of over €6m have been achieved from criminals claiming welfare.

Chief Corcoran’s comments come after the anniversary of the murder of Veronica Guerin on Jun 26, 1996. Her murder led to CAB’s establishment.