Man, I really gotta open a hotel! Do you have any idea how easy it is for people looking to launder money or finance terrorists to do so through the hospitality industry? There is so much cash money channeling through hotels, restaurants, & casinos, that there’s no way the authorities can ever hope to catch it all. And, here I am, missing out on all this dirty money!
For those who don’t know, money laundering is when you pass money that’s been illegally gained through a business so that it looks like you made it through legitimate means. In other words, a criminal organization will buy a business, then invest their “dirty” money into it, in the form of sales & payments. They can then receive money from the business (or even get refunds for what they paid), & they have receipts that show where they got the money. The banks that the money goes through are none the wiser.
In the case of hotels, a criminal organization will buy a piece of land, build a luxury hotel, complete with all the best amenities & services. But, then, nobody will ever stay there. Sure, on paper, there appears to be cash flowing like a river through the place, they are constantly booked solid. But, in reality, they are just writing down these items in their books & letting the banks make all this money look legitimate. Or, they can book stays & excursions at hotels, then cancel them just before their visit. The hotel will issue them a refund, from their bank, showing them as the source of the money. Now, there is a bonafide paper trail for the crook.
With restaurants, it’s much easier if you find one that’s already operating. They will have a functioning business, with cooks, wait staff, managers, etc. But, funneling the dirty money in to pay the bills, will make your money come out clean on the other side. Especially if you cook up some fake expenditures & investments.
Casinos & other gambling enterprises offer such easy explanations for the gain of sudden wealth. Many of them also offer the added bonus of their own financial institutions that will transfer foreign currencies, set up accounts, & issue cash on the spot. As is the usual schtick, one can buy some chips, play a couple of hands, then cash out & get clean money back. This is especially easy in Ghana, where this is all categorized as “entertainment” & barely regulated.
The same is done in the travel & tourism industry. Criminals will purchase pricey vacation packages, then back out, getting their legitimate refund for the illegal money they paid in. Some groups are also setting up expensive vacation packages for others to purchase. They pay ahead for the packages with dirty cash, then people pay them back for the excursions with clean, pure moolah.
There are lengths these industries can go to to try to help combat this problem. Lots of training goes into teaching employees to identify & report suspected criminal activities. Letting the Ghana Tourism Board regulate them helps keep them honest. Vetting processes for their customers help them to know who they are dealing with. And the increased insistence on digitizing the process helps keep records of transactions & where the money comes from.
Because these industries are so cash-intensive, it is almost impossible to trace down all the dirty money that can flow through them. That’s what makes these schemes so successful. That’s why I am offering my services to anyone who needs it. Let me clean that cash for you! I would love to help out!
