Academic

AG Michael Mukasey suggested today that organized crime is taking over our financial markets.  He dropped the word "billions."  But while many a politician (and movie-maker) likes to suggest that the criminals are bigger than US Steel, we here at the Glom know that you sorta need to read between the lines when the leadership starts talking about secret conspiracies.  What was Mukasey really after?  Al Qaeda?  Banks annoyed by their reporting requirements?  Did he want to justify FinCEN's budget?  The speech looks a bit directed at Congress ("we're starting a task force with your money!"), a bit directed at foreign governments ("we love it when you let the FBI come and visit!"), and a bit directed at the ... Russians?

The criminals operating these schemes are willing to move money for anyone who needs to hide the source, ownership, or destination of the funds--no questions asked.  They corrupt banking officials and exploit lax anti-money-laundering protections around the world to inject illicit funds into the global money stream.  By all estimates, such schemes move billions of dollars every year through U.S. financial institutions.

A good example is the case of Garri Grigorian, a Russian national living in the United States who helped launder more than $130 million on behalf of the Moscow-based Intellect Bank and its customers, through bank accounts in Sandy, Utah.  Grigorian and his co-conspirators set up three U.S. shell companies, and then set up bank accounts for those companies in Utah and New York.