International Financial Crime and Documentary Credits

Since the collapse of communism in the former Soviet Union and in Eastern Europe, the rise of organised crime has been swift and substantial. It has taken control of many sectors of the economy in these countries and, because of its newly amassed wealth, it has attained significant political influence. Organised crime groups have used their political and economic influence to persuade certain provincial governments in the former Soviet Union to assist them in transferring their ill‐gotten proceeds to apparently legitimate investments in western countries. Some provincial governments, acting on behalf of certain organised crime groups, have exploited their ongoing relationships with leading international banks to obtain documentary credits to transfer billions of dollars of criminally derived money into investments in developed countries.