Scammers compete in cunning to launder their dirty money
The money in circulation is not necessarily clean, neither in Switzerland nor elsewhere.
The 2024 report from the Swiss Money Laundering Office (MROS) shows a dramatic increase in reports, it said Thursday. In one year, 15,141 suspicious activity reports were received, a 27.5% increase compared to 2023. This represents approximately 59 alerts per working day, an all-time high.
While the banking sector remains the main source of reports (92.3%), cryptocurrency-related stakeholders are increasingly reporting suspicious activity, with 227 cases reported. These include fraud, money laundering, questionable accounts, and funds of unclear origin.
New worrying trends have also been identified. Online gaming platforms, for example, are reportedly being used to launder money. Cryptocurrencies are also reportedly being traded in child pornography cases, while 40 suspicious cases linked to possible funding of Hamas, sometimes via donations or NGOs, have also been identified. As a reminder, the organization was banned by the Confederation last December.
To cope with this avalanche, MROS plans to modernize its tools and better monitor digital financial flows.
This is when someone tries to make illegally obtained money appear legitimate. In concrete terms, this means taking "dirty" money, earned through drug trafficking, fraud, or corruption, for example, and channeling it through transactions (banks, purchases, companies, cryptocurrencies, etc.) to make it difficult to trace and appear "clean" in the eyes of the law. The goal? To be able to enjoy the money without getting caught or arousing the suspicions of the police or banks.
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