AML CHALLENGES
Human trafficking: AML’s dilemma
A
surprise topic made an appearance
at the annual ACAMS conference in
Las Vegas in September. And rumor
has it the same topic was quite prominent at
the ABA Conference in Washington, DC in
October. Human trafficking, a seldom-referenced topic in anti-money laundering circles,
has become a “hot button” topic. Human
trafficking is probably the most surreptitious predicate offense to come along since
the inception of suspicious activity reporting
(SAR) requirements with billions of dollars
generated annually from its various forms.
With that kind of growth, any level of support
that anti-money laundering (AML) professionals can provide law enforcement in
identifying money laundering resulting from
human trafficking is invaluable.
“After drug dealing, human trafficking is tied
with the illegal arms trade as the second
largest criminal industry in the world, and it
is the fastest growing.”1 Though human trafficking spans continents, defining the financial red-flag indicators of human trafficking is
extremely challenging because it presents in
multiple forms.
To develop human trafficking indicators, the
illegal activity itself must be defined. First
and foremost, human trafficking is not the
same as smuggling. Those who are smuggled
consent to their situations in one form or
another, whereas trafficking involves use of
force/coercion against the victim. Trafficking
need not involve physical movement of a
victim, whereas smuggling involves transnational or international movement.
The “Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and
Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially
Women and Children” is a protocol to the
Convention against Transnational Organized
Crime. Also called the Trafficking Protocol,
it is one of the two “Palermo protocols”
adopted by the United Nations in Palermo,
Italy, in 2000. Signed by 116 countries, the
Trafficking Protocol became effective in
December 2003.2
According to the Trafficking protocol, trafficking in persons is defined as:
“(a)… the recruitment, transportation,
transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons,
by means of the threat or use of force or
other forms of coercion, of abduction, of
fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power
or of a position of vulnerability or of the
giving or receiving of payments or benefits
to achieve the consent of a person having
control over another person, for the purpose
of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at
a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or
practices similar to slavery, servitude or the
removal of organs;
(b) The consent of a victim of trafficking in
persons to the intended exploitation set forth
in subparagraph (a) of this article shall be
irrelevant where any of the means set forth in
subparagraph (a) have been used;
(c) The recruitment, transportation, transfer,
harbouring or receipt of a child for the
purpose of exploitation shall be considered
“trafficking in persons” even if t \