Money laundering expert urges vigilance on Russian cash

ONE of the world’s leading experts on money laundering yesterday warned that Cyprus was a magnet for Russian mafia and that local bankers needed to be extra vigilant of Russian money.

Kenneth Rijock, a former banker and lawyer turned money launderer, who joined the lawful side of the fence after spending two years in jail, also said Cyprus had not quite shaken off its image as a money laundering haven, but was moving in the right direction.

Rijock was speaking yesterday at a seminar for local bankers, lawyers and anti-money laundering officials, advising them what to look for and warning them to be always vigilant.

He said Cyprus now had a “fairly good” anti money laundering machine and a good regulatory body. “Like all countries everyone’s got a long way to go but they [Cyprus] are going in the right direction,” Rijock told the Cyprus Mail.

He said the concern with Russia was not just limited to Cyprus.

“But Cyprus is a target of opportunity for Russian organised crime and as long as the particular bank has a good anti money laundering-complaint staff they’ll keep it out of there,” he said.

But he said if anyone’s “sloppy or lazy”, the launders would get in.

“Because if you don’t do your homework and you don’t vet the client and his source of funds, you’ll end up taking money that looked good but you find out later when the person is arrested in another country, that it wasn’t so good,” he added.

“Cyprus unfortunately still has a little bit of a reputation in the global financial community as being a refuge for some Russian organised crime money. I think it will take a couple of years for that association to go away but it will go away,” said Rijock, a Russian American.

Earlier, he told bankers that Russian organised crime was a “constant threat”.

“And you live in a place which is safe and convenient to the Russian market. It makes your financial industry very attractive but especially for Russians,” he said.

He said if Cyprus had only local banks the money would be easier to track, but the presence of other European banks gave launderers an outlet to move the money into the global financial system.

“The more stops and hits they can make between A and B, the more easy it is for them to defy investigators,” said Rijock.

“I’m not here to preach doom and gloom about Russian business. A lot of it is legitimate,” he added.

Vigilance was the key to spotting possible money launderers, and bank staff should try not to be distracted by personal or other issues when dealing with clients, he said. Launderers nearly always acted late on Fridays, early on Mondays and holiday weekends, during the World Cup when staff might be distracted, or when junior staff were on the counter.

“When you’re at your worst, money launderers are at their best,” Rijock said. “Their job is to make sure they succeed where you are failing.”

Since giving up his criminal career, Rijock, 59, has also trained undercover agents for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, acting as a money launderer in an undercover role on behalf of law enforcement in Florida, and on behalf of network television in the tax havens of the Caribbean, and acting as consultant in money laundering tactics for a major Hollywood motion picture studio.

Rijock has written around 4,000 articles and currently works with World-Check, an informational organisation for financial institutions, which is organising the Cyprus seminar.

Source: Cyprus Mail