A police team in a Western-European country initiated an investigation into a family suspected to be involved in drugs trafficking and money laundering.

It was suspected that the family was using a Bureau de Change company, ‘Family Holding’, to facilitate the laundering process.

One of the relatives managed the business from abroad. Other members of the family, Marcel and Luc, were the local managers and primarily undertook foreign currency exchange activity, with ‘profits’ from the business being deposited in cash into the company accounts.

Whilst the police were investigating this family using traditional law enforcement techniques, the family’s financial transactions were at the same time being monitored by financial institutions who became suspicious of the activities observed on the company accounts.

Within a short time-span - less than two months - large movements of funds occurred within the accounts of ‘Family Holding’. By means of cash deposits and transfers, approximately USD425,000 was credited and nearly USD213,000 transferred to a personal account at a foreign bank. The financial institution concerned was suspicious of the fund movement and accordingly decided to disclose the transactions to the national FIU.

In view of the sizeable amounts of funds involved, the FIU undertook searches of both its own intelligence databases and other law enforcement and commercial databases.

The register of the Chamber of Commerce showed that Luc was one of the directors of ‘ Family Holding’, as well as being registered in the national police database as involved in organised crime. The latest disclosures also showed that Marcel had performed transactions himself by depositing significant sums into his own personal account, after which he had transferred practically the whole amount to the Family Holding company account. As the FIU was collating the various disclosures and intelligence into a form which could be passed to the investigating police force, yet another bank made separate disclosures reporting new transactions involving another Family Holding account. From the Family Holding account at this institution significant sums were transferred - via an account at a foreign bank - to personal accounts in an Asiatic country. The FIU passed all the intelligence relating to the transactions involving Family Holding, Luc and Marcel o n t o the police unit.

All together the equivalent of over USD425,000 was exchanged and channelled abroad during a twelve-month period. The FIU report supported the police investigation, and assisted in determining the scale of the drug dealing and the volume of laundering undertaken. The financial investigation also determined that the profits were being used to purchase real estate abroad. When several key suspects were arrested and interviewed by the police unit, the financial intelligence from the FIU assisted to overcome initial attempts at silence - a number of suspects admitted to their involvement and claimed they acted on orders of the main leaders of the family.

In total some USD4,300,000 worth of real estate was seized abroad. Luc and Marcel were convicted for fourteen and twelve years of imprisonment respectively in relation to drugs trafficking and money laundering offences. Furthermore, fines totalling some USD425,000 were imposed on the brothers as a further penalty.

Indicators :
Large and/or rapid movement of funds
Large-scale cash transactions