Financial crime

Financial crime is when people do illegal things to take money or property from others. This can happen in many ways, like tricking someone with fake checks, using a stolen credit card, or lying to get a loan.

These bad actions can be done by single people, big companies, or groups that work together to break the law. Anyone can be hurt by financial crime—individuals, businesses, governments, or whole countries.

Law enforcement sometimes calls big groups that work together on these crimes "criminal syndicates." It is important to know about financial crime so we can help keep ourselves and others safe.

Bribery

The U.S. made a law called the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in 1977 to stop unfair payments to foreign leaders. This law was important for many years. Around 2010, other countries, like the United Kingdom with its Bribery Act 2010, made stronger laws against this. In 2016, a group called the International Organization for Standardization made a global standard to help companies stop unfair payments. Countries have been working together more to enforce these laws.

Money laundering

Main article: Money laundering

Money laundering is when people try to hide where their money came from when it was earned in illegal ways. They do this by moving the money through different accounts, using fake companies, or moving it between countries. The goal is to make the money look like it was earned legally.

Many countries work to stop money laundering because it helps fund other illegal activities. It is important for governments to work together to prevent this.

Fraud

Fraud is a problem in the financial industry. As we use computers more for money matters, fraud has also changed. Old ways to catch fraud do not work as well anymore, so new tools are used to find it.

Unfortunately, fraud is a big problem around the world, and it can hurt many people and businesses.

Law enforcement agencies

Some countries have special police groups that help stop crimes about money and taxes. These groups work to catch people who break rules about taxes, hide money, or use other people’s information without permission.

Here are some of these special groups from different countries:

• Australia - Australian Taxation Office
• Canada - Department of Finance is the primary policy driver on AML/CTF. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) have the primary Federal enforcement mandate.
• Denmark - National enhed for Særlig Kriminalitet (NSK)
• Mexico - Unidad de Inteligencia Financiera
• Netherlands - Fiscale Inlichtingen- en Opsporingsdienst
• Nigeria - Economic and Financial Crimes Commission
• Norway - Økokrim
• Sweden - Ekobrottsmyndigheten
• United Kingdom - His Majesty's Revenue & Customs
• United States of America - Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation