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One of the most worrying and serious threats to society is organized crime. The criminals behind this crime are usually very clever and their acts can be complex and difficult to follow. This goes for the money laundering relating to their crimes as well, which is why it is so hard to prove that somebody is laundering money.

Organized crime affects the banks and other financial institutions in any country. Most banks in well-developed countries like the USA and the UK have systems in place to try and catch out money launderers, but these criminals are always coming up with new ways to commit their financial crimes and get away with it and they can be extremely inventive.

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Many criminals turn to less developed countries as a way of laundering their money. Generally these countries do not have techniques for catching launderers that are sophisticated and so it is easier for them to get away with it. However, if a country is seen as attracting a lot of criminal masterminds and using dirty money in order to develop, big investors will stay away as they do not want their name associated with crime. This will adversely affect the economy of the developing country as they will forever be dependent on criminal money and it can take a long time to get free from this. That is why more developed countries are so desperate to keep money laundering away from them, particularly in the current economic climate. If one investor smells trouble and pulls out of the USA, more will follow and the USA will experience a serious downturn in its economy.

Without money laundering, crime would not pay. Burglary, drug trafficking, fraud and extortion would be pointless if the proceeds of crime could not be disguised and dispersed. Money laundering is an area of concern for many regulators around the world and keeps the police, fraud investigators and forensic accountants fully occupied.