I wonder if any of our members attending Mike’s talk were expecting to hear detailed information of how to carry out money laundering in a practical way? Mike having worked in a bank, had encountered some of the world of money laundering. He began his talk with details of the Brinks-Mat robbery in 1983. He described the ferocity that the gang used on the guards in the Air Cargo building where large amounts of money and diamonds were held. The gang were very surprised to find gold also in the store. This was a temporary consignment of 6000 gold bars weighing nearly 3 tons, possibly worth over 26 million.
Before making their getaway the gang loaded the gold, cash and diamonds into their only means of transport, a Ford Transit van. The robbers just managed to drive away with the van very low down on its springs. This was only the start of their problems as the gold had to be converted into other forms of cash Jewellery or disposable goods. Any large amounts of cash needed to be fed into bank accounts either into British or Foreign Banks without raising suspicion.
They had access to a jeweller who could alter the gold, melt it down, add copper to change its value. The jeweller made gold rings and other forms of jewellery so it could be sold. The cash obtained was fed through businesses, these might have been a car wash, a barbers, a nail bar, a garage selling cars or even a corner shop. They still needed to be careful not to raise suspicion by depositing large amounts of cash that the banks may consider excessive. If the banks noticed high transactions they would inform the police who would investigate the books. Present day, in the illegal drugs trade the same conditions would still apply.
Only a small amount of the gold has ever been recovered. It has been noted in the trade that gold jewellery bought today may well contain some of the gold from the Brinks-Mat robbery.
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With thanks to Alan Dodd for the interesting article.
o