A businesswoman called Diana established and registered a company named Oak Ltd, assigning herself as sole owner and controller.

The company, which was registered as a firm engaged in the timber trade, hired Donna as a sales agent. Both Donna and Diana were in fact involved in a range of criminal activity, and used Oak Ltd as a laundering vehicle.

Funds derived from crime were paid into the company accounts in cash - although as such cash transactions were not unusual in the timber trade, no disclosure was made by the financial institution. As a result of the various illegitimate activities undertaken by both ladies, the company was able to report an inflated profit of USD100,000 in its first year as criminal funds were channelled through the income stream.

The following February Diana died of natural causes, leaving her passport at the company offices. Using Diana’s passport and pretending to be her dead employer, Donna withdrew USD100,000 from the bank in cash. Shortly after the transaction, the bank decided to disclose to the national FIU due to the rapid growth of the company and large cash withdrawal.

After an analysis of the account records and consultation of the Population Register database - which detailed the date of death for Diana - the FIU identified the laundering activities of Donna and forwarded the case to the police for action. At time of writing the police were preparing to arrest her on a range of money laundering charges.

Indicators :
Unrealistic business turnover
Large - scale cash transactions