Deficiencies in regulations for anti-money laundering in a cyberlaundering age including COMET: Central Online AML Merchant Enforcement Tool

Abstract

<p>Money laundering, an act of illegal cash washing, accounts for two to five percent of the world's gross domestic product. This alarming amount of illegal financial activity has brought national and international laws, regulations on banks, and procedures to deter money launderers. With the rise of cyber banking, digital cash, anonymous stored value cards, and advanced personal identifiable information theft, money laundering laws and regulations fail to account for the movement of illegal money in the digital world.</p> <p>Discussed in this thesis is an overview of the current money laundering techniques and regulations. The objectives of this research are twofold; first, to broadly identify deficiencies within the banking and regulatory institutions regarding cyberlaundering including hypothetical cyberlaundering methods and second, to suggest a specific feasible approach to minimize and deter online laundering of illicit revenue through the application of COMET: a Central Online AML Merchant Enforcement Tool. COMET is a central database system which makes use of data mining techniques to mitigate a cyberlaundering return merchandise scheme.</p>