money laundering best practices, lessons to be learnt and steps

long as the burden was carried by general public, or, as perceived, by nobody in particular(somebody else).Contemplating on this, one cannot miss that the corruption levels were very high in formerYugoslavia. Also, as it was an one party system there were little regional gods that were allowedto tailor the local economic investments, spatial plans, education etc in accordance with their ownideas, needs, interests, and give beneficial contracts to “friendly companies”. These officials, whowere willing to assist the good people with their problems for voluntary contributions, had noproblem depositing the same contributions into banks with no unpleasant questions being asked.All these were, and still are, some of the possibilities for money laundering that create significantnavigating space for a successful, what we might call a “moderate size” money launderer.Unfortunately with the collapse of socialism, i.e. planned economy, and transition to marketeconomy during the time of war there was, and still is, a big black hole opened in privatizationprocess which has been ongoing for the last 13 years, and will still be a very dubious area notonly in former Yugoslav republics but in all former eastern block countries for many years tocome. Transition is beneficial not only for money launderers but for any criminal with cashintensive business who is looking for a quick way to become a legal and reputable citizen. Inalmost all countries created after the fall of Yugoslavia there were numerous privatization auditswith very limited findings. Only in Croatia we are still facing scandals about privatization ofhotels and companies that were sold for decreased value and very few of them continuedoperating. In most of the cases workers were fired and assets of the company were sold with highprofits. Such situation significantly ruined the production part of the economy and created highunemployment of middle-aged workers which was, and still is, an additional burden for socialservices.MONEY LAUNDERING SITUATION IN CROATIARepublic of Croatia is positioned on the west part of the Balkan Peninsula and is a part of the socalled “Balkan route”. The country’s economy was devastated during the war with large numberof factories remaining on the occupied territory. Large part of Croatian border lines are so calledsoft borders with former Yugoslav republics, which provides a wide range of opportunities to“entrepreneurs”. There is also a long sea border with 5 international cargo ports, which putsCroatia in a position open to world smuggling chains.Money Laundering Best Practices,Lessons to be Learnt in the Balkan RegionWritten by Tamara BrneticPage 11 of 58