You’ll hear a standard theme from U.S. Authorities officers concerned in counter-terrorism about “following the money.” The unhappy reality, nonetheless, is most don’t have any clue about how to try this. Once I, together with 5 different companions, fashioned BERG Associates LLC in 1998, we carved out a distinct segment as a singular group of specialists in cash laundering investigations. The star of our group, John Moynihan, is a forensic accountant who did 4 years with DEA operating its undercover cash laundering operations in New York Metropolis. I discovered loads from John. He’s a licensed genius on this space.
We labored on the Financial institution of New York Russian Cash Laundering case as considered one of our first jobs. We investigated all the main tobacco and liquor firms for cash laundering on behalf of the European Union and the Governors of Colombia. We had been lucky to have informants that labored inside main Colombian and Mexican cartels in addition to a member of a Russian Clan. The photograph heading this text is from one of many circumstances we labored in Panama. A Colombian cartel despatched members to Panama with these “bricks” of {dollars} to buy gold. The cash was the proceeds of drug trafficking.
We briefed a bunch of intel analysts on the Joint Particular Operations Command (JSOC) in 2006 on tips on how to observe Mokhtar Belmokhtar by specializing in his cigarette commerce. He moved numerous Philip Morris product — Marlboro to be exact. Sadly, JSOC didn’t act on our suggestions. Belmokhtar was not stealing Philip Morris Marlboros. He was buying the product via a Philip Morris distributor. If in case you have a terrorist group that’s trafficking in cigarettes, or liquor or Toyota vehicles, all you need to do is get your palms on the product and hint backwards.
Bear in mind when ISIS was at its strongest in Syria in 2013? They had been driving round in model new Toyota decide up vehicles. All that wanted to be carried out was get the serial quantity off of 1 car and work backwards. Moynihan and I briefed this to a Particular Operations Command (SOCOM) officer who was given the duty of “following the money.” To my information he by no means adopted up on our advice of how to determine who was supplying ISIS with these vehicles. They didn’t steal them off of a automobile lot.
Right here is an 11 minute have a look at Russia’s allegation that Burisma was concerned in terrorist finance. The large unanswered query is what was Cofer Black, a former senior CIA official who headed up the Counter Terrorism Middle (CTC) in 2001, doing whereas serving on the board of Burisma and a Latvian Financial institution that was later implicated in doable terrorist financing? Was that only a loopy coincidence?
