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Exit Strategy - Diamond Laundering - Part One

Money laundering has been around for many years, but did you know about diamond laundering?

Most countries have anti-money laundering laws, requiring banks and other financial institutions to report large or suspicious deposits and transfers. Fraud investigators know that following the money is always the best way to find the perpetrator behind the crime. 

Criminals get around this by using cash-based businesses, (restaurants and casinos are favorites) as a front. High volume, low dollar cash transactions from many customers makes it difficult to trace the money's source.  The downside is that this type of money laundering can be labor-intensive. It is also easier to detect with today's computing technology.

That's where diamonds come in.  They're easy to conceal, have a recognized store of value and a well-developed market.

Whether it's African rebels exchanging conflict diamonds for arms or cash, drug dealers settling their bill with South American drug cartels, or terrorists financing terrorist cells, diamonds have long been used as a form of money. Of course, you can't exactly make change from a diamond. It's not divisible like money, and splitting it up destroys its value.  Someone will eventually convert it into cash - on the black market, or by trying to sell rough diamonds to cutting houses in India, Belgium or other major global markets. 
 
Conflict diamonds are another story. Diamond cutting houses can only buy those diamonds certified under the Kimberly Process.  More about that in my next post.    

How does a fraud investigator expose a diamond laundering scheme? Read Exit Strategy - book one in the Katerina Carter fraud investigator suspense series.