International Overview of the Incidence of Economic Crime (From The Regulation and Prevention of Economic Crime Internationally, P 91-112, 1995, Jonathan Reuvid, ed. -- See NCJ- 160747)

• NCJ Number: 160750
• Author(s): R Bosworth-Davies; G Saltmarsh
• Date Published: 1995
• Length: 22 pages
• Sale Source: Kogan Page Ltd
• Publication Type: Issue Overview
• Language: English
• Country: United Kingdom

Annotation

This chapter examines the pattern and prevalence of economic crime in Europe and Asia, with the focus on Russia.

Abstract

For the purpose of this overview of "enterprise crime," it is defined as "the planned committing of offenses for profit or to acquire power, which offenses are each or together of major significance and are carried out by two or more persons who form a durable cooperation with a division of labor, using commercial- like structures, violence or the threat of it, or abusing political or public influence." A major manifestation of enterprise crime in Russia is fraud and criminality within the Russian banking infrastructure. In March 1994, the deputy head of the interior ministry's criminal investigation department reported that "A big proportion of our banks are linked to mafia and criminal gangs, and are involved with money laundering." Organized crime has infiltrated the Russian banks to such a degree that introducing financial prudency procedures has now literally become a matter of life or death. In 1993 in Moscow alone, more than 12 Russian senior financiers were assassinated; to date none of the murders has been solved. Elsewhere in former communist states, economic crime is being increasingly targeted as a significant cause of concern. In the Czech Republic, the adoption of a market economy has stimulated an explosion in economic criminality as criminal entrepreneurs exploit the financial possibilities now available to them. Elsewhere in the world, economic crime remains the main source of criminal concern for regulators and law enforcement agencies. In Malaysia, reports of commercial crime increased by more than 300 percent in 10 years; economic crime is reported to be costing Australia in excess of $12 billion annually. In communist China, a report published in March 1994 by the State Administration for Industry and Commerce stated that in excess of 150,000 cases of criminal infractions of the economic laws and regulations were undertaken in the previous year, of which 30,000 were described as being "major or serious." 17 references