LISTED COMPANIES USED FOR ORGANIZED CRIME

We offer a story exploring how organised crime groups are finding ways to use listed companies to support their activities, for example as a way of laundering dirty money or by launching cyber-attacks against them? According to the International Bar Association (IBS), for instance, Hong Kong’s regulator is very focused on organised crime groups doing financial crime, particularly ‘ramp and dump’ schemes – a form of market manipulation involving trading of shares – using listed companies. Many listed companies in Asia are affected by these schemes, carried out by criminal groups in Hong Kong, mainland China, Singapore and Malaysia. In Italy, the use of listed companies by such groups is part of a broader tradition of such enterprises infiltrating organisations to run businesses that look legal, but aren’t. According to IBS, listed companies can be more attractive to these groups because they should have higher standards of control and checks by the authorities. Consequently, it’s harder to demonstrate that these groups have infiltrated them. Besides, there are also larger amounts of money linked to listed companies.