USING THE AMERICAN HAWALA TO LAUNDER CLIENT'S DRUG PROFITS

Due to the inquiries that I have received as the result of my recent article HOW I USED AMERICAN HAWALA SUCCESSFULLY, AND HOW USING AI CAN SPOT IT (January 27, 2023), it is important for readers to understand that I employed a variation on that scheme to not only serve two masters (clients) at the same time, but to launder the narcotics profits of one in the process.

The first client organization, headed by a chemist with a doctorate, was engaged in the manufacture of what is known as crystal meth, a/k/a ice a/k/a speed, of such a high quality, meaning potency, that it presented as totally transparent, diamond-like crystals, which were known to be in great demand to drug consumers in Middle America. Their distribution network was handled by Hell's Angels motorcycle club organizations in the Midwest. This drug is extremely toxic, and there's genreally not a happy ending for anyone engaged in long term abuse.

The second client group was a crew of cocaine and marijuana smugglers with maritime backgrounds, bringing drug into Florida from abroad.This group needed to launder their cash drug profits abroad. The first organization had their money already placed offshore, but they had an urgent need for cash within the Continental United States.

I making such a marriage of convenience, rather than just arranging for the onshore client to be credited with the offshore bank account, and delivering the cash to the client who was assigning his offshore corporation, and therefore funds held in a tax-haven bank, I arranged for a check to be cut, with the named payee as directed by the recipient.

But it wasn't a check from the offshore bank; it was a check from that bank's correspondent account in a major New York financial institution. The offshore bank merely prepared the instrument at my instruction; any frontline bank employee or teller seeing it would not know it was from a correspondent account, unless they really looked closely at the fine print, made inquiries, and learned the truth about its origin. After all, it carried the ABA routing number of one of America's largest banks. The recipient created a suitable cover story about the purpose of the funds.

None of those checks were ever the subject of compliance or law enforcement inquiries. The moral of the story: if you should ever see a financial instrument which even possibly could have been drawn on an offshore bank's correspondent account, do not allow it to be processed until you have ruled it out as a money laundering instrument. Today, an AI-powered system would certainly alert compliance to its suspicious nature.

P.S. For those who were wondering about that chemist, US law enforcement could never catch him during the manufacturing process with the contraband, and they had to settle for a conviction for tax evasion. Although he only drew a short sentence, justice was served.