Study title

The misuse of corporate vehicles by organised crime groups in the concealment, conversion and control of illicit finances presents a number of problems for responsible investigators, law enforcement authorities and regulators. Such problems arise when dealing with the immediate criminal networks and activities but more broadly when ensuring the robustness and integrity of legitimate business structures and services for those involved in transnational commerce. The misuse of corporate vehicles for illicit purposes is a highly complex issue in terms of detection as such illicit structures and transactions have an appearance of legitimate practice which is conducive to concealment. This research project aimed to inform our understanding of such misuse of corporate vehicles in order to support the activities of multiple stakeholder groups. The collection consists of interviews with informed experts, regulators and law enforcement actorsTransnational organised crime groups and the difficulties in intervening with illicit finances have been identified as a high-priority concern by the UK government (see Serious and Organised Crime Strategy (SOCS) (2013)) and remain high on the agenda of other sovereign states and intergovernmental bodies such as the EU and UN (see for instance SOCTA (2013)). A central issue for transnational organised crime groups is that in order to conceal their illicit finance, some form of collusion and/or cooperation with external, legitimate actors such as accountants, lawyers and other professionals may be required. One mechanism for facilitating this is the creation and misuse of legitimate business structures, such as 'corporate vehicles' - the EU's Serious and Organised Crime Threat Assessment (2013: 14) foregrounds how 'organised crime groups exploit various legal business structures and professional experts to maintain a façade of legitimacy, obscure criminal activities and profits, and to perpetrate lucrative and complex crimes'....