How Human Traffickers Exploit International Economics: Underground Banking and Cash Movement

[brwn]

https://followmoneyfightslavery.org/how ... rt-1-of-4/


How Human Traffickers Exploit International Economics: Underground Banking and Cash Movement

The rise of the cyber world since 2000 has vastly altered the global financial system, causing a major shift towards online economics. Sadly, the expansion of web-based economics has enabled a variety of human trafficking tactics that allow crimes to proceed virtually unnoticed. New and developing methods for facilitating trafficking have resulted in the growth of profits and criminal networks.

This blog series dives into the many avenues traffickers follow to hide their crimes and highlights criminal cases that illustrate such efforts. Some methods have long been utilized, while others are just beginning to emerge. Understanding how human traffickers exploit international economics will help inform how we can most effectively follow the money to fight slavery. All the information from his blog series comes from Louise Shelley’s “Human Trafficking and the International Financial System,” which can be found here



Underground Banking

Underground banking encompasses all informal banking transactions, and though it is legal in most countries, it is recognized as a suitable mechanism for money laundering. By definition, it includes money transfers that lack any physical movement of money, which make it extremely difficult to follow. This form of banking dates back as far as the Tang Dynasty in China (618-907 AD), and its deep historical roots aid in facilitating illegal activity today.

Cash Movement

Unlike the majority of economic exploitation methods discussed in this blog series, cash movement does not rely on online economics. Traffickers smuggle bulk cash between countries to be kept off the radar of law enforcement, as harboring such sums of cash could trigger an investigation. Cash can be smuggled in a variety of ways, and those being trafficked can be employed as “mules” to do the smuggling themselves, as seen in the following case study.

[doginventer]

Louise Shelley’s “Human Trafficking and the International Financial System,” -
hhrg-117-ba10-wstate-shelleyl-20210325.pdf - Google Drive
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HnHGN3 ... Wr-so/view