IT is a godsend for money launderers, as it provides a speedy and efficient platform with which they can operate, says international money laundering expert Rowan Bosworth-Davies.
However, IT can also be used to help identify money-laundering transactions, he adds.
UK-based Bosworth-Davies, principal consultant with the Unisys Financial Compliance group, provides education and consulting services in the field of fraud prevention and anti-money laundering awareness programmes.
A lawyer and a former Fraud Squad detective at New Scotland Yard, he ran the investigation division of one of the UK`s financial self-regulating organisations for two years.
Visiting SA to present a seminar in Johannesburg on Wednesday, Bosworth-Davies says money launderers consider this country attractive because it has recently been democratised and is in need of foreign investment.
"You have a hugely sophisticated banking system," he says. "SA is a first world country in terms of banking and financial services." Money launderers use banks because "a bank is the most natural way money and units of redeemable value get moved around".
A degree of political instability in SA means that government has to be concerned with other issues, making it easier for money launderers to operate. In addition, there are not enough people in law enforcement.
Bosworth-Davies says money launderers are always looking for quicker and more efficient ways to launder "black" money, and IT provides a ready platform.
"When a money launderer is using IT, he sends digitally encoded information, so once it arrives he is depositing an electronic message. Money ceases being cash and becomes an encoded message.
"When we move into e-cash, that will be the answer to the money launders` dilemma - how to transfer value back and forth."
"IT can be used to look at very large numbers of transactions very quickly, and the IT interface can push at the interface team those with the highest number of characteristics.
"In this way it gives advance warning of transactions of which they should be aware."
Bosworth-Davies, joint author of "Money Laundering - A Practical Guide To The New Legislation", is an academic with Honorary Research Fellowship at Exeter University, Westminster University and the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies.
His other works include "Fraud in the City - Too Good To Be True", and "The Impact Of International Money Laundering Legislation".
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