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Money Laundering Research Related to Auditors The Role of Auditors: Research Into Organised Crime and Money Laundering This paper is part of a larger project into the nature of organised crime in member states of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), a topic that is currently of key concern to the Institute for Security Studies (ISS). The starting point was an interest in exploring new ways to monitor the relationship between criminal networks and legitimate business in the region. This led to the idea that members of the auditing profession may be strategically placed to have a unique insight into a specific aspect of organised crime, namely money laundering. If the hypothesis was correct and it was found that auditors do have a good insight into money laundering, then it was hoped that future surveys could draw on this expertise in doing so, it would help develop triangulation techniques that are so important in this field. André Standing and Hennie van Vuuren
Sweeping it Under the Carpet: The Role of Accountancy Firms in Money Laundering White-collar crime is increasing in the Western world. It has been estimated that some £500 billion of hot money is laundered through the world's financial markets each year. Such huge amounts of money cannot be successfully laundered without the involvement of accountants (and other professionals) who use their expertise to create the complex webs of transactions whose purpose it is to conceal and obscure illegal activity. Despite this involvement, accountants and auditors are expected to play a leading role in the reporting of fraud and moneylaundering. Through a detailed consideration of a case in which a small accountancy firm was judged by the High Court to be involved in moneylaundering, the paper explores the relationship between regulators and errant accountants. The reluctance or inability of the regulators to pursue other accountants and larger accounting firms implicated in this case suggests that, by design or by default, the current regulatory apparatus operates to shield the activities of accountancy firms from critical scrutiny. Austin Mitchell Prem Sikka Hugh Willmott
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