CENTRAL EUROPEAN ECONOMIES AND THE FINANCES OF INTERNATIONAL ORGANISED CRIME

After considering the transformation of organised crime since the 1960s, the paper summarises the political and economic conditions in the Soviet Union which encouraged the spread of organised crime. It then considers the example provided by the development of the ‘black economy’ in Hungary, the current position of organised crime in the Russian Federation and the comparative ineffectiveness of countermeasures against financial crime in central Europe. The paper concludes that, especially in the light of UK legislation and the EC Directive on money laundering, UK‐based companies and financial institutions need to exercise the utmost vigilance in their transaction recording and reporting.