The so-called “three-phase model”, based on three stages:
1. lokowanie (ang. placement) –
the introduction of cash derived from crime into the financial system with the participation of banks, insurers or casinos; an example can be called smurfing which involves depositing many small amounts of money which does not require identity checks
2. nawarstwianie (ang. layering) – separation of money from their illegal source through a series of financial transactions; usually these are transfers from many banks, especially abroad , which operate in tax havens;
3. integracja (ang. integration) – creating a legitimate explanation for the origin of " laundered " funds and putting them into legal trade ; in this case used a number of tools , such as real estate sham sales , the creation of fictitious entities (ie . of shell companies that record the revenue is not conducting any business ) , carrying false merger, purchase of securities or gold.
Money Laundering:
- It is a process through which criminally-derived funds or assets, including cash and securities, are moved through the global financial system to disguise their unlawful origin and/or true ownership.
Money laundering involves three steps:
- the first involves introducing cash into the financial system by some means ("placement");
- the second involves carrying out complex financial transactions to camouflage the illegal source of the cash ("layering");
- and finally, acquiring wealth generated from the transactions of the illicit funds ("integration").
AML is anti-money laudering – preventing money laudering.
- It handles the analysis of transactions executed on Citi bank accounts with regard to their compliance with the law.
- What is AML? We are part of Citi – one of the biggest and most prestigious financial institutions in the world. Our mission is to protect Citi’s banking system by preventing economic and financial crime such as money laundering and terrorist financing. Every day, by applying the newest solutions and using the unique knowledge of our experts, we protect our customers and shareholders around the world and enhance the reputation of our organization. Our actions very often result in interventions by local law enforcement agencies in specific countries.
- What do we do and who do we work with in AML? Did you know that criminals dealing with drug smuggling and trafficking, illegal gambling or corruption have to “clean” the money gained through these unlawful activities in order to bring it into circulation within the financial system? It is estimated that every year billions of US dollars are laundered. By becoming part of AML in Citi you will stand as part of the front line of protection against these illicit activities. Your job will be to analyze and monitor transactions made around the world and to report suspicious cases. Imagine a situation where a person with a Citi account starts at some point to receive inflows of very substantial and equal amounts of money. For such a case, an AML analyst would receive an alert containing a number of suspicious transactions. The analyst would then turn into an investigating officer whose job is to verify the credibility of the customer. Based on the available sources of information, the analyst would then take a decision on if the customer had the right to perform those types of banking transactions. In their everyday work, analysts cooperate both with customer relationship managers as well as compliance officers from around the whole world.
- Why is the world closer than you think? Imagine that when you start your day at the Warsaw office you automatically connect with the whole world. Sounds interesting? Here are some facts. Besides Tampa in Florida, USA and Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, AML in Warsaw constitutes one of the three Hubs in the world that monitor transactions for Citi against money laundering. Teams based in Warsaw provide services to a total of 60 countries from Europe, Africa, Middle East and North America. As part of the task of investigating transactions in so many countries and implementing global solutions for AML, we cooperate on a regular basis with Citi staff across the whole world. That is why it is not surprising to hear 27 languages being spoken every day in our office or to meet people of various nationalities and cultures here. What unites us is the English language which is used daily in our work. The diversity of our professional backgrounds, skills and education together with the global character of the work we do make our business environment so varied and unique.
Your duties will include:
- investigating clients and transactions to detect possible money laundering activities - catching suspicious transactions and checking them for key words
- analysing data derived from internal databases, the Internet and commercial databases
- preparing presentations based on the collected data
- operating under agreed business contracts, confidentiality standards and global standard policies, procedures and tools
What can we offer?
- fixed salary and stable employment
- a benefits package (private medical care, a Multisport card, an occupational pension plan, life insurance)
- the opportunity to start a career in a professional corporate environment in a company with possibilities to grow
- collaboration with foreign partners on a daily basis
- professional trainings (depending on the position held)
We are looking for motivated and dynamic Candidates who meet the requirements below:
- very good command of English - necessary for daily communication and correspondence
- strong analytical skills and focus on accuracy - you’ll work on specific data and any mistakes affect clients
- a higher education diploma (at least Bachelor’s or Engineer’s degree)
- the ability to analyse large volumes of data based on procedures or instructions - you will face challenges that can help you grow
- a good understanding of Windows and office suites (Word, Excel, etc.), ability to use the Internet and execute commercial database searches - they will be your everyday work tools
- good work organization, determination, and the ability to make decisions - after all, your work will be very responsible and you will have to handle serious cases.
The Panama Papers, What You Need To Know
Yesterday, it was all anyone was talking about: the Panama Papers. And then the names spilled out: Messi. Ulloa. Putin. Cameron. It seemed that the Panama Papers were connected with a staggering number of high-profile names.
But what, exactly, are the Panama Papers? Here’s what you need to know.The Panama Papers is a global investigation into the sprawling, secretive industry of offshore that the world’s rich and powerful use to hide assets and skirt rules by setting up front companies in far-flung jurisdictions.
Based on a trove of more than 11 million leaked files, the investigation exposes a cast of characters who use offshore companies to facilitate bribery, arms deals, tax evasion, financial fraud and drug trafficking.
Behind the email chains, invoices and documents that make up the Panama Papers are often unseen victims of wrongdoing enabled by this shadowy industry.
The Panama Papers are a leaked set of 11.5 million confidential documents that provide detailed information about more than 214,000 offshore companies listed by the Panamanian corporate service provider Mossack Fonseca, including the identities of shareholders and directors of the companies. The documents show how wealthy individuals, including public officials, hide their money from public scrutiny. The papers identify current government leaders from five countries – Argentina, Iceland, Saudi Arabia, Ukraine, and the United Arab Emirates – as well as government officials, close relatives, and close associates of various heads of government of more than forty other countries, including Brazil, China, Peru, France, India, Malaysia, Mexico, Pakistan, Romania, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Syria, and the United Kingdom.
The Panama Papers are an unprecedented leak of 11.5m files from the database of the world’s fourth biggest offshore law firm, Mossack Fonseca. The records were obtained from an anonymous source by the German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, which shared them with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). The ICIJ then shared them with a large network of international partners, including the Guardian and the BBC.
The use of offshore business entities is generally not illegal in the jurisdictions in which they are registered, but during their investigation reporters found that some of the shell companies may have been used for illegal purposes, including fraud, drug trafficking, and tax evasion.
The documents were made available to the Süddeutsche Zeitung beginning in early 2015 by an anonymous source, an unremunerated whistleblower using the pseudonym "John Doe". The information documented actions going back to the 1970s and eventually totaled 2.6 terabytes of data. Given the scale of the leak, the newspaper enlisted the help of the U.S.-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), distributed documents for investigation and analysis to some 400 journalists at 107 media organizations in more than eighty countries. The first news reports based on the papers, and 149 of the documents themselves, were published on April 3, 2016. A full list of companies is promised for early May 2016. The prime minister of Iceland resigned his position due to public criticism of his and his wife's actions.
The files show how Mossack Fonseca clients were able to launder money, dodge sanctions and avoid tax.
In one case, the company offered an American millionaire fake ownership records to hide money from the authorities. This is in direct breach of international regulations designed to stop money laundering and tax evasion.It is the biggest leak in history, dwarfing the data released by the Wikileaks organisation in 2010. For context, if the amount of data released by Wikileaks was equivalent to the population of San Francisco, the amount of data released in the Panama Papers is the equivalent to that of India.
While no formal definition exists, offshore financial centers (sometimes also called "tax havens") are typically defined as jurisdictions whose banking industries: primarily provide services to people or businesses who are not resident; do not require companies to disclose information; and have low-tax regimes.
Companies and individuals may establish offshore accounts for a variety of reasons, some "perfectly legal and benign". However, as noted by The Economist and researchers like the Tax Justice Network, "the most obvious use of offshore financial centers is to avoid taxes" and other laws and regulations.
Law firms play a central role in the operation of offshore financial centers. Mossack Fonseca, a Panamanian law firm, is one of the biggest, and an "industry leader". The firm's services include incorporating shell companies in offshore financial centers and administering them otherwords. This can include creating "complex shell company structures" that, while legal, also allow the firm's clients "to operate behind an often impenetrable wall of secrecy". The leaked papers detail some of these structures.
Mossack Fonseca has acted on behalf of more than 300,000 companies, most of which are registered in the UK or in British-administered offshore financial centers. The firm works with the world's biggest financial institutions, such as Deutsche Bank, HSBC, Société Générale, Credit Suisse, UBS, Commerzbank and Nordea.
The Panama Papers are documents which were leaked from Mossack Fonseca, a Panama-based law firm which, according to its website, offers “comprehensive legal and trust services.” The website goes on to say that the firm offers “research, advice and services for the following jurisdictions: Belize, The Netherlands, Costa Rica, United Kingdom, Malta, Hong Kong, Cyprus, British Virgin Islands, Bahamas, Panama, British Anguilla, Seychelles, Samoa, Nevada, and Wyoming (USA).” Some of those jurisdictions have been labeled tax havens – including Panama.
The number of documents involved in the leak is staggering: 11.5 million confidential documents, constituting financial and legal records. It is thought to be one of the largest such leaks ever: even bigger than the info shared by Edward Snowden. The documents take up 2.6 terabytes in computer storage. For context, 1 terabyte of data could be stored on about 1400 CD-ROMs or 220 DVDs.
The files date back nearly 40 years, to 1977, when Mossack Fonseca was formed. About a year ago, an anonymous source contacted Süddeutsche Zeitung, a well-known German newspaper, with an offer to turn over the documents – with no compensation in return. Rather, the source said, the reason was simply, “I want to make these crimes public.”
The data was transferred to Süddeutsche Zeitung over the course of a few months. It consisted of e-mails, photos and other documents taken from an internal Mossack Fonseca database. Süddeutsche Zeitung, in turn, shared the records with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). The ICIJ and hundreds of other journalists from a variety of news outlets researched the documents.
Panama has always been one of the best tax havens in the world - both during and after the reign of General Manuel Noriega - and Mossack Fonseca (run by a Swiss tax expert named Jurgen Mossack and his Panamanian partner, Ramon Fonseca) is one of the dominant players in the parallel world of tax havens.
In this sense, the unprecedented leak of nearly 40 years' worth of documents (more than 11 million documents on more than 210,000 companies, trusts, foundations, and world leaders), revealing that Mossack Fonseca offered its services to facilitate money laundering, tax avoidance, and criminal activity should surprise no one.
Offshore entities of this kind have been created precisely for fulfilling such roles for the rich and powerful that rule the world.
Indeed, as Mark Hays, senior adviser of Global Witness (a non-profit organisation that acts as watchdog against international corruption) told International Business Times: "What is surprising is that this is just one law firm involved in this practice, but there are thousands of companies involved in orchestrating these schemes…"
Mossack Fonseca is not a household name, but the Panamanian law firm has long been well-known to the global financial and political elite, and thanks to a massive 2.6-terabyte leak of its confidential papers to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists it's about to become much better known. A huge team of hundreds of journalists is poring over the documents they are calling the Panama Papers.
The firm's operations are diverse and international in scope, but they originate in a single specialty — helping foreigners set up Panamanian shell companies to hold financial assets while obscuring the identities of their real owners. Since its founding in 1977, it's expanded its interests outside of Panama to include more than 40 offices worldwide, helping a global client base work with shell companies not just in Panama but also the Bahamas, the British Virgin Islands, and other notorious tax havens around the world.
The documents provide details on some shocking acts of corruption in Russia, hint at scandalous goings-on in a range of developing nations, and may prompt a political crisis in Iceland.
But they also offer the most granular look ever at a banal reality that's long been hiding in plain sight. Even as the world's wealthiest and most powerful nations have engaged in increasingly complex and intensive efforts at international cooperation to smooth the wheels of global commerce, they have willfully chosen to allow the wealthiest members of Western society to shield their financial assets from taxation (and in many cases divorce or bankruptcy settlement) by taking advantage of shell companies and tax havens.
If Panama or the Cayman Islands were acting to undermine the integrity of the global pharmaceutical patent system, the United States would stop them. But the political elite of powerful Western nations have not acted to stop relatively puny Caribbean nations from undermining the integrity of the global tax system — largely because Western economic elites don't want them to.
So far, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) has only been able to identify 211 people with U.S. addresses who own companies in the data (not all of whom we’ve been able to investigate yet). We don’t know if those 211 people are necessarily U.S. citizens. And that figure covers only data from recent years available on a Mossack Fonseca internal database — not all 11.5 million files from the leak.
In other words, that 211 number comes from just a small sliver of the data. “It’s a complete underestimate,” says Mar Cabra, head of the data and research unit at the ICIJ. Finding a precise number of Americans in the data is difficult.
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