All the noise surrounding the investigation of the former EU Justice Commissioner on allegations of Money Laundering through Lottery Tickets brings up a valid point: why did the EU, in its regulations, making a finding of fact to the extent that such an activity was low risk, and therefore identity checks on winners was not necessary.
Based upon my experience whilst on the other side of the law for more than a decade in my youthful "professional" life, I can tell you that career criminals that I represented during that time routinely got the word out in the outlaw marketplace that they would pay a premium, in cash, no questions asked, for winning lottery tickets that paid off a large amount of money. The holders were extremely happy to evade the necessary taxes withheld at the source, and the fact that they did not have to declare all that cash to internal revenue.
Sometimes, traffickers who wanted to lateral from narcotics into a legitimate line of work used the purchase of a large payoff to crossover back into a normal, yet affluent and definitely kosher, life, without the usual stress of being discovered, arrested and convicted. Sometimes, they rewarded a subordinate in that manner, or moved him or her out of a life of crime, for what we call 'risk management" reasons, meaning that they had come to constitute a threat to their overall operation.
Therefore yes, EU, please tell your lottery agencies, as well as the financial sector, to perform enhanced due diligence identity checks on any and all mega-winners of a lottery;You may be surprised at who you find.
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