Mafia Money-Laundering Profits Swell in Credit Crisis
July 21st, 2010Via: Bloomberg:
The mafia has cranked up money laundering activities in Italy after the credit crunch prompted banks to stop lending, leaving a funding gap that criminal capital has filled, according to the Bank of Italy.
“The crisis has given organized crime room to thrive because access to credit has become more difficult,” said Anna Maria Tarantola, the central bank’s deputy general director, in a July 12 interview in her Rome office. “Whoever holds large amounts of cash, like crime groups, can make investments that aren’t possible for others. They can now invest in fully legal businesses.”
The central bank’s financial intelligence unit tracked 15,000 suspicious transactions in the first half of 2010, up 52 percent from a year earlier, and exceeding the total for all of 2008, said Tarantola, who’s in charge of banking oversight.
Money laundering occurs when criminals hide illegal income by funneling it through legitimate channels. Last year investigators seized Rome’s Café de Paris, famous for its appearance in Federico Fellini’s 1960 film “La Dolce Vita,” alleging it was owned by the Calabrian ‘Ndrangheta mafia. Sicily’s Cosa Nostra mafia has used supermarket chains it owns for similar purposes, according to court reports in Palermo.
