HOW WILL MONEY LAUNDERERS EXPLOIT SINO-JAPANESE DIRECT YEN-YUAN TRADE ?

Money launderers thrive on emerging opportunities. China & Japan have just announced that they have entered into an agreement that provides for direct Yen-Yuan trade. This means that, in their joint international trade, their respective currencies will no longer be converted first to US Dollars.

The elimination of the intermediate denomination of currency into US Dollars, which might be employed by prosecutors to confer that extraterritorial jurisdiction of the Money Laundering Control Act of 1986 exists, has not escaped the attention of the money laundering fraternity in Asia, I suspect. The risk of indictment by the US Attorneys' Offices may have decreased.

So, how will the international trade between the two countries, using Yen-Yuan exchange, be utilised by career money launderers ? Are we talking about trade-based money laundering ? Will bulk cash smuggling from one country to another, to facilitate the laundering of illicit profit though Sino-Japanese trade, be made easier ?

Whilst these musings are only theory, they are based upon the established fact that experienced money launderers often exploit even minor changes in the financial system to perfect new, and effective, laundering schemes.