There
are eleven states in Southeast Asia; Singapore, Brunei, Malaysia, Thailand, The
Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar, Lao PDR and Timor Leste.
Collectively, there are around 600 million people in Southeast Asia.
Economically, the region could hardly be more diverse with Singapore and Brunei
ranked among the world’s twenty richest countries in the world while citizens
of five other countries in Southeast Asia barely survive with less than US$2 a
day.[1]
This
phenomenon is actually very rare. Usually, countries in the same region will
not differ significantly in terms of wealth and economy. The gap will not be
very big. A region is usually poor, moderate or wealthy. However, in Southeast
Asia, some of the countries are among the world’s richest while the rest are
among the world’s poorest. This indicates unintentionally ineffective economic
cooperation at its best, or deliberate manipulation of a weaker economy by a stronger
economy at its worst.
Money laundering has become one of the most paying illegal businesses
in Southeast Asia. According to the IMF the volume of money laundering amounts
to 2-5% of the unified GDP of all the countries on Earth. Translated to
concrete sums this means at least 590- 1.500 billion USD annually'.[2]
The modus operandi
for money laundering used to be simpler. For example, a drug dealer makes a
profit of RM10 million. If he deposited the money into his saving account, this
will trigger suspicion on the part of the bank. The bank will then notify the
relevant authority and the drug dealer will be investigated. In order to avoid
such a situation, the drug dealer will launder the money first. The drug dealer
can open a company and then mixed the money obtained from drug trafficking with
the profit obtained by the company. The money is then deposited into bank as
profit from the company.
Nowadays, money laundering is more complicated. The
previous example might not work any longer since unusual increase of profit can
trigger suspicion on the part of the auditor who is obliged to report it.
Whether it can work or not depends on the complexity of the legal and
regulatory framework, in addition to the political will of the government. The
previous method is more difficult to be attempted in Singapore due to its more
stringent and stricter anti-money laundering (and anti-corruption) legislation
but it might still work in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam as their legal and regulatory
frameworks are still lacking due to their economic and legal backgrounds.
The methods by which money may be laundered are varied and
can range in sophistication. However, the purpose is the same; to prevent
authority from knowing that the money comes from illegal sources.
The US
government through a website called knowyourcountry.com provides the details
for the position of each country.
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