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Asset protection is consistent with the broad financial objectives of corporate and shareholder wealth maximization. Risk is balanced with opportunity in pursuit of wealth[1] .
This paper explores the various typologies and methods used to cloak assets[2] following the placement stage of money laundering. Successfully laundered money has a concealed provenance. In a long and engaging article, [4] Cuellar (2003) argues that there is an all too tenuous relationship between the techniques and detection systems used against money laundering and law enforcement's goal of disrupting criminal finance. He argues that the focus on cash creates systemic blind spots. The argument is misguided: cash and the placement of cash into the financial system bears continued focus and attention[3] . Organized crime is vulnerable at the point of sale: 44 pounds of cocaine translates to 220 pounds of $10 bills at street level; handling that cash, particularly in the face of barriers like currency transaction reporting, complicates drug dealing and potentially exposes the business to law enforcement ([13] Simser, 2006). There is merit, however, in asking what happens to the cash that gets into the financial system. This paper focuses on that question reviewing asset cloaking techniques. This paper intentionally ignores large issues relevant to money laundering (hawala, hundi, and da shu gong si and so on)[4] .
As proceeds are laundered at various levels discussed in this paper, both domestically and internationally, the role and importance of civil asset forfeiture as an anti-money laundering device becomes very apparent ([8] Linn, 2004). Civil asset forfeiture proceedings are brought generally against the "thing" not the person. The proceedings follow property as it transmogrifies from one format to another. The civil forfeiture practitioner faces challenges. How does one access the right information? How does one obtain an order in a foreign jurisdiction? This paper does not answer those questions. Rather, this paper offers the investigator and practitioner ideas about where to look for laundered assets. Where did the money trail go? Why was a trust used? What might lie behind the corporate veil?
Assignments: you have the wrong person
The simplest technique for hiding an asset is to assign title to a trusted nominee. Simple nominee ownership works for both operational assets and for profits. In Canada, there...