Money Laundering Investigations - What Type of Activity Must be Reported?

Money laundering investigations can be complex because they require the unearthing of concealed origins of illegally obtained funds. Because of the many potentially criminal origins of laundered money, such activities must be thoroughly investigated so as to make the involved parties responsible for their actions. When a particular event triggers a money laundering investigation, the Philippines has excellent firms that you can turn to for help in handling money laundering cases and other security management threats that your company or organization might be facing.

Reporting suspicious transactions and/or activities is critical to money laundering investigations. In financial regulation, SARs or suspicious activity reports are generally made by financial institutions. These reports—otherwise known as STRs or suspicious transaction reports—are about deliberately suspicious or potentially suspicious financial activities such as transfers of unusually large amounts of funds. Criteria used in deciding when reports should be made varies internationally, but activities that trigger STRs/SARs are generally any financial transactions or activities that don’t make sense to the reporting financial institution. These can also be activities that appear to be done for the sole purpose of obfuscating or hiding a transaction.

Suspicious activity reports are filed with financial crime enforcement units and are likely to trigger a money laundering investigation Philippines. Countries have a specialist financial crime enforcement unit whose sole purpose is to collect and analyze these suspicious transactions and later report them to the appropriate or relevant law enforcement unit. In the Philippines, the agency that handles such analyses is known as the PCTC or Philippine Center on Transnational Crime. It is linked to INTERPOL Manila, which is the national law enforcement unit that carries investigations that are international or cross-border in nature. Money laundering is among their areas of expertise, along with illicit trafficking of psychotropic substances and narcotic drugs, terrorism, arms smuggling, human trafficking, piracy, and other crimes and activities that impact the security and stability of the country.

Finding a private investigation institution to help you through money laundering investigations is critical so you can be guided accordingly throughout the entire process and to make sure that your best interests are protected. Suspicious activity reports typically include details on transactions that are suspicious or appear to be suspicious by the agreed standards. These kinds of filings help government institutions like the PCTC identify groups, organizations, and individuals who may be involved in money laundering, fraud, terrorist financing, and other such crimes.