Illicit proceeds, tangible, succession, estate, bulk cash, straw men, accountancy, to eliminate, to undertake, to earn interest, bureaux de change, gambling, stockbroker, white collar, threshold, smurfing, wire transfer, to disclose/discosure,front companies, entities, commerce, physically, entering, precious metal, a wide variety, exporters, insurers, Netherlands, Belgium, Portugal, premium insurance.
Answer the following questions.
1. What is the aim of shell companies’ activities?
2. Who are straw men?
3. How long do front companies exist?
4. Why are money launderers more oriented towards the use of non-banking financial institutions now?
5. What a new category of professional money laundering specialists is emerging nowadays?
6. What are principles of their activity?
3. Explain what is meant by:
to change the illicit proceeds from one form to another; acquiring tangible assets; entities that generally exist only on paper; which are still not completely or properly regulated; to come under the same obligations; to earn interest; second line banks; premium insurance, bond sector, to face a «law enforcement risk», smurfing.
4. Retell the text.
Vocabulary and grammar work
Write down the families of the following words.
To gamble; to exist; to smuggle; to trust; to challenge; to earn; to exist.
Explain the meaning of the following words in English and give the Ukrainian equivalents.
Straw man; bulk; proceeds, real estate, trafficker, stock exchange,
offshore zones, interest, tangible assets, second line banks, smurfing, premium insurance, bond sector, stockbroker, white collar, threshold.
Put the correct prepositions and make sentences of your own.
1. They often face a risk _______ investigations _____ their real existence;
2. to launder proceeds________ banking financial institutions;
3. to be exposed _______ difficulties;
4. because _________ a more or less explicit complicity;
5. individually or __________ concert;
6. to exceed the threshold required ________ the law;
7. to transfer funds _________ one's own account;
8. the identities ________ the owners __________the deposits;
9. these regulations do not apply _________such offices;
10.a special mention has to be done ________ insurance companies;
Complete the table.
| Noun | Verb | Adjective | Performer |
| to launder | |||
| operator | |||
| existence | |||
| favored | |||
| to administer | |||
| financial | |||
| investigator | |||
| transaction | |||
| to operate | |||
| accountable | |||
| obligation |
Match the Ukrainian and English equivalents.
1/ Більш витончені методи; 2/ нескінченна розмаїтість; 3/ більш-менш явна співучасть; 4/ корумпована організація; 5/ фальшиві документи звітності; 6/ розвинена фінансова система; 7/ знову виникло занепокоєння; 8/ велика кількість проблем; 9/ ставити у скрутне положення; 10/ брокери на біржах; 11/ злочинці на службових місцях, 12/ спеціалісти з відмивання грошей; 13/ збирач податків; 14/ фондова біржа; 15/ нерухомість; 16 матеріальне майно; 17/ підставна особа; 18/ облігація; 19/ на додаток; 20/ особливо слід зазначити;
a/ money laundering specialists, b/ white collar criminals, c/ stock exchange; d/ tax collector; e/ money brokers; f/ to expose to difficulties; g/ bond; h/ more sophisticated methods; i/ corrupted institution; j/ mature financial system; k/ a special mention has to be done; l/ endless variety; m/ more or less explicit complicity; n/ false reporting documents; o/ a myriad of problems; p/ real estate; q/ tangible assets; r/ straw man; s/ in addition to; t/ emerging concern.
WRITING
Express your opinion of the following statement: The main aim of all money laundering criminals is to hide profits and shelter proceeds from the tax collector
Section 4: BRIBERY AND CORRUPTION
Before you read
Discuss these questions:
1. What do you know about corruption?
2. What spheres of our life are mostly corrupted? Argue reasons.
Key vocabulary:
To condemn bribery, to proliferate, to succeed in smth., to curb, to suffer the consequences, widespread, to undermine, to amass, spectacular, embezzlement, selfishness, greed, to inflict, discretion, checks and balances, to weed out, transparency, to disclose, incentive, to gain benefits.
Read and translate the text:
What is Corruption
Three thousand five hundred years ago, the Law of Moses condemned bribery. Over the centuries since then, anticorruption laws have proliferated. Nevertheless, legislation has not succeeded in curbing corruption. Millions of bribes change hands every day, and billions of people suffer the consequences.
Corruption has grown so widespread and sophisticated that it threatens to undermine the very fabric of society. It takes many different forms, from the routine cases of bribery or petty abuse of power to the amassing of spectacular personal wealth through embezzlement or other dishonest means.
Why do people choose to be corrupt rather than honest? For some, being corrupt may be the easiest way—or indeed the only way—to get what they want. At times, a bribe may provide a convenient means of avoiding punishment. Many who observe that politicians, policemen, and judges seem to ignore corruption or even practice it themselves merely follow their example.
Two powerful forces keep stoking the reasons of corruption: selfishness and greed. Because of selfishness, corrupt people turn a blind eye to the suffering that their corruption inflicts on others, and they justify bribery simply because they benefit from it. The more material benefits they have, the greedier those practiced of corruption become.
Reasons of corruption:
-When public officials have wide authority to act, when rules and regulations are not very clear and that gives officials a lot of discretion to interpret laws. When this happens, officials can make decisions that benefit themselves, without sufficient checks and balances and without oversight bodies to identify and weed out corruption.
-When there is little accountability for officials and little transparency in the process. When officials don't view themselves as being accountable to the public (not elected), when they are not required to disclose finances and assets, or when they have immunity from prosecution due to their positions.
-When there are weak incentives to be honest - many civil servants are not paid a living wage. Many incentives reward blindly following rules, as opposed to achieving performance goals.
-When institutions - like judiciary, prosecutor's office are weak or over-politicized and cannot enforce their decisions.
-When there is lack of political will and commitment (the thing one has promised to do) to make changes.
-When civil society is not organized sufficiently to show outrage against excessive corruption and force government to clean itself up through educating the public and mobilizing opinion.
-When primary driving factor in society is not rule of law, but personal loyalties
Roots of Corruption.
- Wide authority and discretion
- Limited accountability and transparency
- Wrong incentives
- Weak institutions.
- Lack of political will.
- Underdeveloped civil society.
- Anti-system attitudes.
There are several forms of corruption: bureaucratic or administrative; syndicated or criminal and political. These terms are not mutually excluded. Bureaucratic corruption is perpetrated by government employees, examples are petty thievery, bribes, “commissions” and so on. Syndicated corruption is linked to organized crime; drug running is an example. Political corruption is often identified with elected officials; it includes improper contract awards, wrongfully influencing government policy, using political influence to gain personal or political benefits, and so on.
Reading check exercises
