Money laundering and asset cloaking techniques
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the various typologies and methods used to cloak assets following the placement stage of money laundering.Design/methodology/approach – Techniques used to hide assets and cloak ownership, ranging from simple nominee arrangements through to complex financial transactions are explored.Findings – There are a myriad of methods available to money launderers to cloak their assets.Research limitations/implications – More work needs to be done on the issue of information gateways.Practical implications – Assets are cloaked to obfuscate the trail and make it difficult for law enforcement to “follow the money”. Understanding the methodologies used is the first step to understanding the problem.Originality/value – A number of cases from Canada, the USA and Australia were studied, as well as reference material advisors use for asset protection.
Using Asset Disclosures to Study Politicians' Rents: An Application to India
Public asset disclosures, mandated of a third of the world’s national legislators, may be used to study the gains to office and corruption among politicians.I conduct such an exercise here, using data from India. Comparing the change in winners’ and losers’ self-declared family assets in the country’s two most recent state and national elections indicates that the average election winner increased his assets by 4-6% a year. 4-9% of election winners appear suspect, as their asset increases are greater than the premium that they could legitimately earn as legislators. Although these results are arguably modest and statistically fragile, they are driven by larger and more statistically robust estimates for members of the BJP. The suspect nature of some BJP winners’ asset changes is confirmed by an analysis of their composition. Subject to data reliability, these estimates give us reason to doubt the popular characterization of all of India’s politicians as massively corrupt. Members of the BJP, parliamentary majorities and cabinets, and politicians from constituencies reserved for minorities, are more likely to be suspect. These associations could reflect candidate selection or varying incentives for corruption. The method developed here could be used to study corruption among politicians elsewhere.
Research requirements to reduce maintenance costs of civil helicopters
The maintenance problems faced by the operators of civil helicopters that result in high costs are documented. Existing technology that can be applied to reduce maintenance costs and research that should be carried out were identified. Good design practice and application of existing technology were described as having a significant impact on reducing maintenance costs immediately. The research and development that have potential for long range reduction of maintenance costs are presented.