Editorial
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JFC-07-2021-260 |
| Published date | 03 August 2021 |
| Date | 03 August 2021 |
| Pages | 629-631 |
| Subject Matter | Accounting & finance,Financial risk/company failure,Financial crime |
| Author | Mary Alice Young |
Editorial
It’s not illegal, it’s just immoral? The relationship betweenorganised crime and
the upper-world
In 1980, Dwight Smith in his seminal workon the spectrum-based theoryof organised crime
observed that for the organised crime group, “[t]here is arange of economic activity that is
continuous, ‘from the very saintly to the most sinful’” (p. 371) (Smith, 1980). Elucidating on
the observation that big business and organised crime are not so easily separated, this
editorial seeks to explain (albeit in a brief manner), how the range of behaviours from
“saintly to sinful”applies not only to the supposedly legitimate organisation but also in an
inverse manner, to the organised crime group’s activities. Professional enablers are, simply
put, people of upstandingsocial status, operating in the business, legal and financialworlds
(Sutherland, 1940). The author of this paper employs the term “money manager”to
categorise those white-collar workers who manage the finances of upper-world, legitimate
businesses and/orcriminal outfits.
Organised crime is an economic enterprise, indeed Sellin observed just such a point in
1963 (Sellin, 1963). The symmetries with successful legitimate organisations are uncanny.
Organised crime and upper-world business ventures have profit at their core. Increasing
income and minimising losses are a key part of the money management for both types of
organisation. The ability to diversify incomes by dipping in and out of various trades to
sustain the business is also a commonality between both the licit and illegal business
venture. The reinvestment of profits into future business ventures, the increasing (if not
exclusive) reliance on the digital world to grow the organisation,methods of transportation
and supplying goods to meet customer demands, are all activities which exist along the
spectrum of organised crime activities. It may also be, that both the bad business and the
good, increasinglyuse overseas jurisdictions to store and growtheir wealth.
The latter point above, is a method of maximising wealth which requires the use of
professionals to enable the management of criminal or licit wealth overseas. Like the
accountant, lawyer or banker who represents the business interests of a large corporation
seeking to minimise losses by moving offshore, so individuals in the same professions will
endeavour to find a way to discretely deposit and increase the wealth in financial secrecy
jurisdictions, of their criminal employers [1]. In seeking to hide the criminal originsof their
wealth, and preserve the anonymity of themselves and sensitive clients, organised crime
groups will rely on criminal money managers to construct elaborate webs of corporations,
businesses, charitable organisations or other entities. The creation of this tangled “bad”
business set-up, has the impact of allowing crime groups to carry on in their criminal
ventures; committing sophisticated, serious crimes which turn a healthy profit. The
catastrophic impact of the role of the criminalmoney manager in organising the wealth of a
significant crime groups, is that they help to sustain and perpetuate, a range of serious
transnational organised crimes. Indeed, the illicit trafficking market of a range of “goods”
from people, firearms and drugs to fake medical products is rarely different to the
organisation needed to supply products such as plastic cups, textiles, grains and toys. The
only difference isthat one business venture deals in illicit products.
We have briefly discussed some of the symmetries between legitimate and criminal
business outfits –although we have by no mean exhausted the list –including the
requirement of savvy professional enablers including lawyers, accountants, estate brokers
and in the 21st Century “tech heads”(Hynds, 2003).Yet it would be remiss of the author not
Editorial
629
Journalof Financial Crime
Vol.28 No. 3, 2021
pp. 629-631
© Emerald Publishing Limited
1359-0790
DOI 10.1108/JFC-07-2021-260
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