Dirty money in Jamaica
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JMLC-09-2013-0032 |
| Pages | 355-366 |
| Date | 08 July 2014 |
| Published date | 08 July 2014 |
| Author | Mary Alice Young |
| Subject Matter | Accounting & Finance,Financial risk/company failure,Financial compliance/regulation |
Dirty money in Jamaica
Mary Alice Young
Bristol Law School, Faculty of Business and Law,
University of the West of England, Bristol, UK
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the current state and future pressures of money
laundering on Jamaica and the nancial crime connections between the UK and Jamaica.
Design/methodology/approach – The paper focuses on the primary data collected from a series of
semi-structured interviews with members from the law enforcement and nancial services sectors of
Jamaica. The main objective of the interviews was to secure a range of opinions concerning the problem
of money laundering in the country. Interviewees were selected from the Ofce of the Director of Public
Prosecutions, the Financial Investigation Division of the Ministry of Finance and Planning, the British
High Commission and the Financial Services Commission. The names of all subjects shall remain
anonymous to protect the privacy of those who were interviewed.
Findings – Through the analysis of primary data it will be shown that Jamaica remains vulnerable to
money laundering – particularly the proceeds of crime laundered through the remittance sector –
despite a legislative overhaul in 2007 to adopt the UK’s Proceeds of Crime Act. Ineffective legislation is
most certainly due to generic weaknesses and aws which are applicable to many Caribbean states, for
example, a lack of political will to enforce anti-money laundering regulations, corruption, inadequate
police training, lack of resources, a strong remittance sector and geographical positioning along a
drug-trafcking route.
Originality/value – This paper is the rst of its kind to comprehensively analyze the money
laundering situation in Jamaica, using detailed rst accounts from members of the law enforcement and
nancial sectors.
Keywords Money laundering, Jamaica, Organized crime, Drug trafcking, Remittance
Paper type Research Paper
Introduction: Jamaica’s historical legacy of crime
Originally inhabited by the Arawak Indians, it was on May 4, 1494 that Columbus
discovered Jamaica and claimed it for Spain. The natives that greeted Columbus upon his
arrival had been wiped out by the time an English expedition arrived to seize the island from
the Spanish in 1655. Indeed, in the Mercurius Politicus newsletter published on January 31,
1656, it is documented that the English had arrived at the main port in Jamaica from
Plymouth in England, ready to burn Spanish settlements (Mercurius Politicus, 1656).
The slaves who had been imported from Africa by the Spanish and Portuguese
fought against their captors for their freedom when Jamaica was seized by the English
in 1655. As a result, many of the freed slaves relocated to the interior of the island and
established their own free communities known as the Maroons. This did not stop the
arrival of new slaves however – forced to work a mushrooming sugar industry – and by
the eighteenth century, it is estimated there were 500,000 slaves working at the
plantations of Jamaica (Tortello, 2004). Rebecca Tortello observes that “Jamaican life in
all aspects […] was borne out of a brutal system forged through an integration of people
and place”, and so it could be observed that Jamaica’s historical legacy of slavery,
violence, brutality and repression has since inuenced the country’s current unstable
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
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Dirty money in
Jamaica
355
Journal of Money Laundering Control
Vol. 17 No. 3, 2014
pp. 355-366
© Emerald Group Publishing Limited
1368-5201
DOI 10.1108/JMLC-09-2013-0032
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