CENTRAL EUROPEAN ECONOMIES AND THE FINANCES OF INTERNATIONAL ORGANISED CRIME
| Published date | 01 April 1994 |
| Date | 01 April 1994 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb024819 |
| Pages | 323-330 |
| Author | NICHOLAS RIDLEY |
| Subject Matter | Accounting & finance |
CENTRAL EUROPEAN ECONOMIES AND THE FINANCES OF
INTERNATIONAL ORGANISED CRIME
Received: 16th
June,
1994
NICHOLAS RIDLEY
NICHOLAS RIDLEY
IS
SENIOR CRIMINAL INTELLIGENCE ANALYST
WITH EUROPOL AT THE HAGUE, THE
NETHERLANDS.
ABSTRACT
After considering the transformation of
organised crime since
the 1960s, the paper
summarises
the
political
and
economic
con-
ditions in
the Soviet
Union which
encour-
aged 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 counter-
measures
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.
INTRODUCTION
Major criminals' entry into legiti-
mate business is prompted by a
number of factors. Every individual
aspires to respectability, at least in
the eyes of his or her peers. Organ-
ised crime leaders seek to mimic the
businessperson, if only to provide
themselves and their associates with
legitimate cover. Major criminals are
neither reformists nor revolutionary;
the legitimate business sector affords
them new avenues for investment
and new opportunities for power
and wealth. It opens the world of
white collar crime, in which prosecu-
tion is rare and punishment genteel.
The corporation may serve as a
vehicle for illegal activities, or have
fully legal objectives. It is not the
ownership by the criminal, but the
latter's techniques and objectives
that make their entry into the busi-
ness and commercial world illegal.
Organised crime-owned businesses
often prosper, pay taxes, submit cor-
rect and punctual returns and
behave exactly like legitimate enter-
prises.
Indeed, the commercial world
may temper, even alter, the crimi-
nals'
ways ultimately transforming
them into law-abiding business-
people.
Such an idealist corporate prodi-
gal son result is very much beside
the point. As with all stages of
organised crime, the time period
involved is detrimental to society.
The organised crime figure, even
should he or she undergo such a
metamorphosis during the period of
acquiring ownership of the commer-
cial concern, destroys societal eco-
nomic fibre by unnatural injection
of criminal funds and, in the long-
term, destroys confidence in the free
market economy.
323
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